2020 Peggy Browning Summer Fellows

2020 Peggy Browning Summer Fellows Shanelle Staten JD’23 Southern University Law Center Baton Rouge, LA Equal Justice Center Austin, TX Prior to entering law school, Shanelle graduated from Tulane University with her Master’s in Social Work. She provided therapeutic services in the New Orleans metro area and worked as a professor at her alma mater, Dillard University. During that time, Shanelle instructed classes in the Academic Center for Excellence steering and fostering the scholastic success of first-year students. Last summer, Shanelle was selected as a Rural Legal Corps Fellow assisting those experiencing life and legal challenges, by increasing access to services and expanding the outreach schedule and services at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services in Baton Rouge. She was invited to stay on board as the intake specialist and plans to serve others and assist them in reaching the best version of themselves. Madison Slupe JD’21 Villanova University School of Law Villanova, PA O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue LLP Washington, DC Madison’s passion for economic justice has translated into an unwavering commitment to the labor movement. As an undergraduate, she led the Penn State pro-labor student organization and served as the voice of organized labor on campus. Her reverence for justice led her to law school where she is pursuing a joint degree in law and taxation with a certificate in employee benefits. Last year, Madison’s commitment to the labor movement led to being awarded the 2019 Major League Baseball Players Association Michael Weiner Scholarship for Labor Studies and a Peggy Browning Fellowship with Sheet Metal Workers Local Union No. 19. She is president of her school’s ACS chapter, vice-president of the Law Democrats, secretary of the Labor and Employment Law Society, and focuses her studies on issues in labor and employee benefits.  Drew Schendt JD’21 Washington University School of Law St. Louis, MO American Federation of Teachers Washington, DC Drew originally chose to attend law school to pursue a career in civil rights law. However, during law school, he developed a passion for labor and employment law and a deep interest in the history of the labor movement. Drew was the first law student to join his school’s Graduate Workers Union and continues to organize in the law school. He was a founding member of his school’s chapter of the People’s Parity Project, and he works as a research assistant for his labor law professor. Kevin Sharp JD’21 University of Iowa College of Law Iowa City, IA United Steelworkers Pittsburgh, PA ATucson native, Kevin began working with immigrant rights organizations in Southern Arizona where he promptly sensed the inimical relationship between capital and immigrant worker welfare. Kevin’s work revealed how the lack of protections available to immigrant/migrant workers, coupled with the fundamentally exploitative tendencies of employers, renders them especially susceptible to dangerous work environments,wage theft, and forced labor.Recognizing that susceptibility to exploitation extends far beyond communities of immigrant/migrant workers and into virtually every workplace in the United States, Kevin came to law school to be a lawyer for workplace justice. As a law student, he has been extensively involved in the labor movement in Iowa, working as a research assistant for both the Center for Worker Justice and University of Iowa Labor Center.