Anheuser-Busch Fellows, Scholars and Interns

ANHEUSER-BUSCH NORMAN MINETA FELLOWSHIPS

Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund (AEF)
The The Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund (AEF) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporation established by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA) of the Greater Washington, DC Area in 1993 to engage exclusively in charitable and educational activities. AEF was created primarily to grant fellowships to law students and to engage in other educational activities related to the legal profession and the Asian Pacific American community. The main purpose of the fellowships is to allow law students to accept summer internship positions with public interest or government organization that benefits either the Asian Pacific American community or the metropolitan Washington, DC community-at-large. Funding for these summer fellowships has come from generous grants from national corporations such as Anheuser-Busch, local law firms and our Annual Scholarship Dinner.

2000 A-B NORMAN MINETA FELLOW - RAHUL M. SHAH
Rahul M. Shah served his Anheuser-Busch/Norman Mineta Community Service Fellowship, awarded by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund in Washington D.C., at the American Immigration Law Foundation.

He received a J.D. with honors from American University, Washington College of Law in 2002, where he specialized in immigration and asylum law, and a B.A. from the University of Michigan with a dual concentration in Political Science and Asian Studies.

While in law school, Rahul served as a student attorney in American University’s International Human Rights Law Clinic, where he represented asylum-seekers in proceedings before the U.S. Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals. While pursuing his J.D., Rahul also served as a legal intern with the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration in the office of Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Executive Office for Immigration Review in the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Immigration Law Foundation, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

"My internship experience at AILF was extremely fulfilling and influenced my desire to practice immigration law, both in the public sector and private sector," says Shah. "As a new attorney planning to specialize in immigration and asylum law, I hope to strengthen the traditions of freedom, fairness, and opportunity in America’s immigration system."

1999 A-B NORMAN MINETA FELLOW - MARIJU BOFILL
Mariju Bofill is a rising young professional in the field of international relations. An attorney licensed in Maryland and West Virginia, she is currently Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary of International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. The Bureau of International Organization Affairs develops and implements U.S. foreign policy goals in the United Nations and certain other international organizations. As Special Assistant, she is responsible for assisting and advising the Assistant Secretary on various matters that affect the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

Prior to this position, she was a Regional Affairs Officer in the Office of the Coordinator for Counter-terrorism within the State Department. Responsible for the multilateral portfolio, she oversaw counter-terrorism policy coordination with international organizations such as the United Nations, the G-8, European Union and NATO. She attended international counter-terrorism conferences where she has negotiated proposed counter-terrorism texts, and she represented the United States at a terrorist financing experts meeting.

Miss Bofill’s experiences at the State Department have been as a Presidential Management Intern (PMI). This prestigious two-year fellowship program established by President Jimmy Carter, seeks to attract outstanding individuals who have pursued graduate-level educations to serve in the executive branch of the federal government. PMIs must be in the top 10 percent of their class and are nominated by their university dean to compete in a yearlong interviewing process before final selection.

Mariju graduated from American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC, May 2001, where she was very active in the Asian Pacific American (APA) community. A Presidential Scholar of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, she was president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and awarded the Pro Bono Award from the Student Bar Association for her dedication to public interest law. While in law school, she was an honors law clerk at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a law clerk for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Immediately before joining the State Department, Mariju was a policy analyst at the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium in Washington, DC.

"The Norman Mineta Fellowship was extremely important in allowing me to pursue opportunities in the government and public interest sector at the beginning of my law school career.
"I was awarded the fellowship for two positions I held during the summer after my first year at American University Washington College of Law, in Washington, DC. As a Norman Mineta Fellow in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, I was deeply involved in applying the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the National Voter Registration Act to address voting equality in the United States. I traveled to southern Virginia to investigate compliance with anti-discrimination laws, and during the 1999 Mississippi Primary, I was responsible for providing oversight for over ten counties.

"Because of these experiences, my commitment to public service and using the law for equal access and justice for all Americans has continued unwaveringly beyond law school."

1998 ANHEUSER-BUSCH NORMAN MINETA FELLOW - STEPHEN CHEN
The experience of embracing his Asian American identity in the racially polarized South gave birth to an internal passion for social justice and a commitment to the APA community that Stephen Chen has been living out for the past 10 years. During that time, he has worked for social change through education, having spent several years in Higher Education administration at Emory University, and through the law with the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and the U.S. Senate Legislative Counsel. Stephen currently works as an attorney for the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in the New York field office and is responsible for enforcement of laws protecting individuals and communities from discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, disability, and age by educational institutions receiving Federal funds. He received both his BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Asian and Asian American Studies and his J.D. from Emory University and also has a Masters in Education from Harvard.

In the struggle for civil rights for the Asian Pacific American community, one finds that role models and leaders are often hard to come by. But I’ve always found that the work of Norman Mineta stands tall like a beacon to those of us who are finding our way through the darkness. The incredible accomplishments that he has achieved have been a source of inspiration for our community. So, as one might imagine, having looked up to and admired the work of Mr. Mineta for many years, I was deeply honored to be named an Anheuser-Busch Norman Mineta Fellow in the summer of 1998.

I have always had a commitment to working on issues of civil rights for the Asian Pacific American community, and receiving this fellowship enabled me to continue my work that summer at the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, as well as encouraging me in my life-long devotion to such goals. The fellowship symbolizes an affirmation that the community and those who care about the community value the work that activists are engaged in to further the civil, political, and personal rights of the underserved.

Personally, I continue to be guided by the crucial goal of serving the APA community. To that end, I have come to work as an attorney for the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights with a hope that my work secures and enable fair and just access to education for all people. I believe that through education, not only can our society grow in its understanding of difference, but also marginalized populations in this country can establish our proper, equal place in this American tapestry. I hope that in the future, I can continue the tradition of service to society at large and to APAs in particular—a tradition of service embodied by Secretary Mineta.

1997 A-B NORMAN MINETA FELLOW - ARTHUR AGO
Ago is a 1998 graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he was an associate on the Law Review and president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. He holds a BA in English from Amherst College and an MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA. As a 1997 Norman Mineta Fellow, Ago served as an intern for The Honorable Harold Cushenberry, Jr., of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He is currently a Public Defender for the District of Columbia and a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund.

1996 A-B NORMAN MINETA FELLOW - EUGENE CHAY, WASHINGTON, DC
As the first Anheuser-Busch Norman Mineta Fellow in 1996, Eugene Chay interned at the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium in Washington, DC. At the not-for-profit national advocacy organization, Chay worked on various issues dealing with language rights and voting rights. " The fellowship provided the means for me to do work that addressed issues close to my heart and represented some of the most personally rewarding work I have ever done," he says.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Chay went on to graduate from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1998. He is currently employed in the Washington, DC office of Kirkland & Ellis as an associate, where he practices in the litigation and intellectual property departments.

Chay recently completed a two-year term as a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund, a non-profit organization. He has recently been elected treasurer of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association in Washington, DC. He resides in Rockville, Maryland, with his wife and son.

Chay has never forgotten the opportunity the fellowship provided. "Since I received my fellowship, I have served on the board of directors of the organization that awards the A-B Norman Mineta Fellowship every year, and am proud to have played a role in selecting the last two recipients of the fellowship."

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