Bergstrom - Child Welfare Law Summer Fellowship

The Bergstrom Child Welfare Law Summer Fellowship is committed to inspiring the best and brightest law students to pursue careers in child welfare law. Through the fellowship, students gain experience and insight into the field and provide much needed services to various child welfare offices specializing in representing children, parents, and social service agencies. After attending a three-day training session at the end of May at the University of Michigan Law School, Fellows spend at least ten weeks at their placements.

In 1995, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation provided a start-up three-year grant, as a part of the foundation's Families for Kids Initiative, to establish the Summer Child Welfare Law Fellowship through the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. The Summer Fellowship program training is now funded by a generous gift from the Bergstrom Foundation in honor of the late Henry A. Bergstrom, '35. With the Bergstrom funding, the Summer Fellowship has gained a national scope.

Criteria for Selection
Our selection criteria include evidence of commitment to the field of children's law, past experiences related to children and family, and performance indicative of likely future success in the field. We will give some advantage to students who have arranged their own summer placements and all or part of their summer living stipend. Interested applicants should not be deterred if they have not identified their summer placement or source of summer money, however. Once accepted into the fellowship program, we will assist in placement and the search for funds.

Financial Aspects
For fellows accepted into the program, we will cover living expenses during the training. We will also cover each Fellow's travel costs to Ann Arbor and then to his or her placement (up to $500). We expect to have some funding for summer stipends, but those funds are limited. We encourage students to seek out other sources of funding, such as from their law school career placement office, public interest groups, or student funded fellowships. Equal Justice America Fellowships may be available; check the Web site: www.equaljusticeamerica.org. The summer placement may be in a position to provide some support. Even partial support from other sources is helpful because we prefer to supplement funds that fellows receive.

Application
The Bergstrom Fellowship 2008 Application is available now in Microsoft Word.  This year's fellowship training will take place on May 21, 22, and 23, 2008.