Ferias Legales builds on its internship program

From left: Salvador Melendez, Yasbet Pérez, Maria Torres, Luis Pérez, Chris Galeana, María Gomez Garret, and Samuel Beltran after completing training for citizenship application completion.

DOWNEY -- Ferias Legales, a Downey-based non-profit organization focused on delivering free services to underserved communities and increasing diversity in the legal field, launched its second internship cohort last Thursday, March 8.

Maria Torres, who serves as executive director, gave the orientation after welcoming remarks by Downey attorney Ricardo Perez who serves as board president.  

The internship program runs 6-8 weeks and exposes students to different areas of law. This year's class consists of three Rio Hondo College and one student from La Verne Law School.

The program kicked off the first week with a training on completing citizenship applications, which the student interns will be conducting as part of the monthly Ferias Legales Free Citizenship Clinic in Lynwood's office of Centro Jalisco, which was held March 10.

Ferias Legales also announced that their partnership with Rio Hondo College's Pathway to Law School helped secure recognition for the college as "Diversity Champions" at the annual Pathway to Law School Summit which was held at the University of San Francisco Law School in February.

Additionally, the University of La Verne awarded a $7,000 scholarship to transferring student Christian Galeana largely due to his community service work as a Ferias Legales intern during the first cohort of the Ferias Legales Internship Program. Christian is also mentored by Downey attorney Matias Flores as part of the Ferias Legales Mentorship Program held in partnership with Rio Hondo College.

For inquiries about the internship program or about the Ferias Legales services, please contact Executive Director Maria Torres at mtorres@feriaslegales.org.