Dozens of lawyers, judges and court personnel joined students
and their families to celebrate Judicial Youth Corps Appreciation
Day at the John Adams Courthouse on Aug. 16.
This year, 24 students from Boston and Worcester completed the
Supreme Judicial Court's Youth Corps (JYC) program, which gives
urban high school students an opportunity to experience the
judicial system and learn about the law through educational
sessions and hands-on internships in the courts. A mock trial and a
reception marked the culmination of this year's program.
The SJC first established the summer program in Boston in 1991.
The Massachusetts Bar Association has partnered with the SJC since
2007 to expand the program to Worcester. This year marked the first
time that the Worcester program featured students from public,
private and charter schools, said attorney James Rosseel, who led
the Worcester program.
Speaking on behalf of the MBA, Immediate Past President Robert L.
Holloway Jr. congratulated the students and thanked the volunteers
and sponsors, including the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, the
primary sponsor of the Worcester program.
"While our reception marks the end of this year's program, today
we also celebrate the future of our legal profession," said
Holloway. "Whether the young men and women of our program today go
on to become judges, lawyers, or clerks - or whether they choose a
different career path - we know their Judicial Youth Corps
experience has opened a lifetime appreciation of the law and its
processes."
Two members of this year's program addressed the room, which
included several former JYC students, and shared what they learned
from their summer experience. "The JYC gave me an opportunity to
experience what few high school students ever experience," said
Samantha Singh, a student in the Boston JYC program. Worcester JYC
student Konstantinos Tekelis added of his experience, "I got a real
inside look into the working world and how the law works."
Although SJC Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland, a longtime
supporter of the JYC program, was unable to attend the reception,
attorney Gerald Howland, who ran the Boston program, said that
everyone just had to look at the chief justice's smile in the JYC
program photos that were displayed around the room to understand
Ireland's affinity for the program and its students.