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Discovering Justice December 2020 Newsletter

Mock Trials To Wrap Up Fall Semester

Finishing up ten weeks of learning about the workings of the judicial system, analyzing cases, and developing arguments to present a 1st Amendment case, middle school students in 12 different middle schools from Boston to Lowell are ready for their Mock Trial.

This year’s Mock Trial culminating events will be different. In past years, each of the teams had the opportunity to present their work to a state or federal judge, a clerk, a jury of volunteers and an audience of families and friends at courthouses across the state. Yet this year, the Mock Trials will be held completely online and be scheduled with each individual team in mind, rather than one event with all the teams together at a courthouse. Although the venue has changed, the online events will work to capture the same sense of community and allow students to interact with Judges and make their arguments.

Eleven mock trials are scheduled from December 15th to December 21st. During the virtual Mock Trial, teams of students will be presenting their case over Zoom, before a judge, a clerk, an audience of family members, teachers, civic leaders, and a jury of community members! If you would like to watch a Mock Trial, sign up here by December 9th. And feel free to watch a video of Judge Nathaniel Gorton prepping our jurors for their roles.

Many thanks to our partners at O'Brien and Levine, Wilmerhale, Mintz, and Rich May, P.C. for helping make our Mock Trial Program possible this year.

For more information about this December’s Mock Trials, or our Spring Middle School Mock Appellate Program, please contact Luke Matys at lmatys@discoveringjustice.org.

Paid Spring Fellowships Now Available

Discovering Justice is recruiting for its new Spring 2021 Fellowship class. The Fellowship Program provides opportunities for recent college graduates, graduate students, or college students who are taking a gap year, to spend three months working directly with a Discovering Justice staff person. Fellows will work this spring from January/February to April/May and learn a variety of skills including how to deliver civic education programming, work for social change, and run and manage a nonprofit organization.

The Spring 2021 Fellowship offerings are:

  • Online Courthouse Tour Development Fellowship
  • Development, Events, and Fundraising Fellowship
  • Topics Program Fellowship
  • Mock Trial and Mock Appellate After School Programs Fellowship
  • Communications Fellowship
  • K-5 In School Curriculum and Programs Fellowship

Click here to learn more and apply.

Discovering Justice is saying goodbye to its first class of Fellows Alzeta Wilson, Carolina Hutt-Sierra, Grace Heiderman and Ally Damante who have been invaluable to the organization's work this Fall. Hear what they had to say about their Fall Fellowships.

Discovering Justice’s Online Courthouse Tour To Launch Next Year

Discovering Justice staff and Fellows are working to digitally reopen the doors of the Moakley Federal Courthouse through a new digital exhibition exploring the architectural symbols of democratic values found throughout the Courthouse in Boston.

The Courthouse Tours are Discovering Justice’s longest running program, but due to restrictions around COVID -19, we’ve had to get creative about how to share this civic space with members of our community. The upcoming tour exhibition “We the People of the Courthouse” will explore the connections between different spaces in the Moakley Courthouse, and the civic ideals they represent.

To help tell this story, staff is interviewing those who work within, to hear their perspectives of the Courthouse. One of the conversations is with Anna Zhao, a former Discovering Justice intern, and current Junior at the Josiah Quincy School. Anna spoke about the role of the Court (and Discovering Justice) in providing civic education to the public, and how that value is embedded into the design of the courthouse itself.

“By having them [The hallways of the Moakley] resemble the streets of America it creates a sense of warmth and engagement and brings people into the Courthouse. They have a better sense that this is a place for me and this is a welcoming place that was meant to serve the people. It makes people feel like they belong in the Courthouse.” -Anna Zhao

#GivingTuesday Kicks Off End of Year Fundraising Drive

Culminating a two-week education campaign to highlight the strengths of the organization’s program work, Discovering Justice kicked off its end of the year fundraising drive on #GivingTuesday, December 1st. Thanks to all who made a contribution and support our work.  Here are the Top Seven Reasons to Support Discovering Justice.

To support our work click here.

You Came "Back to School" to Strengthen Our Democracy And We Are Grateful

We weren’t sure that you’d come or if you did, that you would stay. But you came and you stayed!

More than 200 guests were in virtual attendance on October 15th at Discovering Justice’s 2020 Gala Back to School: Strengthening our Democracy. Attendees got to hear from students, teachers, lawyers and staff about how the organization is updating and strengthening its programs during the pandemic. After seven months of COVID isolation, seeing all of the faces and reading the comments in the Zoom chat reminded us of why we do our work and how much we appreciate and miss the Discovering Justice community.

Thank you to all who attended and helped make Discovering Justice’s Fall Virtual Gala a great success. Your support and participation are what make our programs successful. If you were unable to attend, it’s not too late to experience the highlights of the evening in the video below.

Support our work, and make a donation today

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