LAW Student Named Rappaport Fellow for Public-Policy Service
Christopher Pineda (LAW’09) is one of three BU students accepted into the Rappaport Fellows Program in Law and Public Policy.
Christopher Pineda (LAW’09) is one of three Boston University students chosen for the Rappaport Fellows Program in Law and Public Policy. The program, sponsored by Suffolk University Law School, gives students from six Boston-area law schools the opportunity for a paid summer internship with a government employer that focuses on urban law and policy issues. The other two BU students appointed Rappaport Fellows are Anna Schleelein (LAW’08) and Katherine Ward (LAW’09).
Pineda says his interest in community activism as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin helped him decide to pursue a public service career. But growing up in a low-income Mexican-American community in Texas was also a crucial influence.
“I was one of the few students from my community to actually go to college,” he says. “I asked myself why it had to be that way, and what I could do to fix that problem.”
A graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a former researcher there, Pineda has worked with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington, D.C., and with the Mexican American Legislative Caucus of the Texas Legislature. He is hoping for an internship that focuses on urban development and public-private partnerships.
“I do plan to go back to Texas,” he says, “and I know public service is something I want to stick with.”
Brittany Jasnoff can be reached at bjasnoff@bu.edu