Abrahamson & Uiterwyk Announces Their July 2021 Law School Scholarship To Promote Diversity Runner-Up

Natassja Urrutia is our 2021 Law School Scholarship To Promote Diversity runner-up.

Here is her essay:

How will you use your legal education to impact your community?

In 2010, my father suffered from a stroke and had to close his Peruvian restaurant indefinitely. Because of his inability to work, my father turned to drugs — forever changing my life.

My father quickly became addicted to methamphetamine. My father’s addiction turned my simple life into a living nightmare I thought would never end. While my mother was the only one supporting the family working 50+ hours, my father was destroying my childhood. My father would get so high so often that he would forget about my brother and me. He would leave us in the car for hours while he was getting high, forced us to walk miles after school just to get home, and worst of all, he made my brother kneel on the ground in a women’s dress to kick the “gay” out of him.

My father’s addiction led to Child Protective Services removing my brother and I from the safety of our home. The days following my removal from home were a blur. For the first time in my life, I felt as if I had lost all control over my life. During this same, maddening time, I embarked on my first year of high school. I had to mature at a much younger age than my peers because I had to take care of myself and my younger brother while navigating the foster care system amid legal battles, court dates, school, and the stress that came with it all.

My mother fought day in and day out to get my brother and I back into our true home. At the beginning, my mother could afford a private family attorney, but as the case continued for months on end my mother no longer had the financial means to afford a private attorney. She was then assigned a court-appointed attorney, who could not even remember my mother’s name.

In those long horrific months sitting in the courtroom, no one heard my voice, no one heard what I wanted, and no one heard where I felt safest. The social worker spent her time advocating that my mother was an unfit mother for allowing my father to continue to live in the house. She claimed that it would be best if my brother and I were apart, which was the exact opposite of what we truly needed — each other. During that time, I spent most of my time in therapy trying to piece together what was happening around me, making up schoolwork from so much class that I had missed and waiting for Sundays, where I would get supervised visitations with my mother and brother.

Almost six months later, I moved back into the comfort of my home with my mother and brother and I was no longer missing class for court. Life was as it always should have been, but the moment I stepped back into my house, I vowed that I would pursue a career in which I would serve others. I vowed to myself to help others who are forced to navigate through the criminal justice system and are left feeling unheard, underrepresented and feeling left as if they do not have a true advocate in their corner.

While my life got better, it did not get easier. My mother was diagnosed with clinical depression and was forced to quit her job. My mother worked as many side jobs as she could to have some income. We lived paycheck to paycheck while maxing out credit cards as soon as my mother could get approved. My family learned to take good care of our personal items in an effort to prolong their use, and it was those daily struggles that motivated me to improve my life.

In my pursuit for better a future, I chose to focus on continuing my education. It was a milestone in my family to be the first in my family to have an education past high school. I was accepted into The University of Nevada, Reno. I worked and studied full-time, to not burden my mother financially. After I graduated in 2018, I took a year off from school to save money and help my mother with her bills before embarking on my higher legal education. In August 2019, I started my 1L year at the University of San Francisco School of Law.

As a child, my voice was not heard in the courtroom. I remember feeling hopeless, stuck, and unable to help myself. Fueled by those memories, I continue my education. I want to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves because they do not understand how the criminal justice system works. I know what it is like to feel helpless and uncertain about how to navigate through a courtroom and I can use those experiences to show my clients compassion, gain their trust, and be a great advocate.

After I graduate, I want to continue to help the indigent people in my community of Contra Costa County. As, someone who has dealt with the criminal justice system, I have felt what is to not have anyone in your corner, and as an attorney, I want to be that advocate fighting vigorously for my community. The work of a public defender is vital and important because as a right, everyone deserves the representation of a true advocate. In criminal law, people’s freedoms are always at stake and every person, regardless of their income, deserves the chance to have proper representation and a zealous advocate fighting for their rights. I want to be a Public Defender to fight day in and day out for the rights of those who are disproportionally at a disadvantage when up against the criminal justice system. We are all somehow part of the system, and as an attorney I want to be the best part of the system, advocating for and defending my clients who also deserve justice.

I hope to be considered for this scholarship as the money would be greatly appreciated.