BBA Summer Jobs Students Get Grand Send-Off Thursday Night (Media Advisory)

As 55 students (high school juniors, seniors and rising college freshman) look forward to graduating from the 2012 Boston Bar Association (BBA) Summer Jobs Program — a diversity pipeline initiative for the legal profession made possible by a partnership involving the BBA, the Boston Public Schools, the City of Boston, and the Boston Private Industry Council — the BBA today announced that Holland & Knight has stepped forward to host a special evening graduation ceremony and reception on August 23, 2012 at 6 p.m. at the firm’s offices at 10 Saint James Avenue, Boston, MA 02116. Holland & Knight is a global firm with 126 lawyers in its Boston Office and a proud participant in the BBA Summer Jobs Program.

Speakers:

• Sonia Shah, BBA Public Service Manager
• Stephane Alexandre, a student at Boston Latin Academy and an intern at Prince Lobel Tye
• Lisa Goodheart, BBA President
• Raymond Cen, a student at Boston Latin School and an intern at Nixon Peabody
• Steven Wright, Executive Partner of Holland & Knight’s Boston Office and the first African American to hold that post
• J.D. Smeallie, BBA President-Elect

Now completing its 19th year, the BBA Summer Jobs Program has always held a graduation ceremony for the students. But working parents and family members found it difficult to attend because it was a breakfast event.

With 55 students participating in this paid summer internship program providing work at Boston law firms, private and public legal departments and legal services agencies — a larger class than ever before — the BBA decided to amp things up a bit. The large number of participants can be attributed to two factors, a generous grant from the Boston Bar Foundation providing funding for 10 students to work at public agencies and legal services providers, and also the leadership of 2012 BBA Summer Jobs Program Co-Chairs David Rosenblatt of Burns & Levinson and Edward Notis-McConarty of Hemenway & Barnes.

Given the demographics of the Boston Public Schools, the program is an important pipeline initiative, introducing students of color to the legal profession. The program has an academic enrichment component, with weekly seminars in civic leadership, rights and responsibilities in the workplace, and the U.S. constitution. Via the M. Ellen Carpenter Financial Literacy Program, a joint initiative of the BBA and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts, the students also learned about budgeting and prudent use of credit.

The BBA Summer Jobs Program began in 1993 with 16 students. Check our list of participating students and sponsoring law firms.

If you are planning on live tweeting at the BBA Summer Jobs Graduation Ceremony/Reception, please use the hashtags #mybba and #sjbos.