Scholar Entries - Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund of Illinois

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Are you a past recipient of an Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund award?

Yes

Name

Sergio Hernandez Jr.

Current Mailing Address

6325 Moraine Avenue
Hammond, Indiana 46324
United States
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Phone

(219) 512-3839

Connection to Illinois

I have family in South Holland and the Chicago area. I have been employed in Chicago.

In what city do you intend to practice law upon graduation?

Chicago, Illinois

Name of Law School

University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Class year

3rd year law student

Full Time or Part Time Student?

Full Time

Date you began attending THIS law school

01/02/2024

Anticipated Graduation Date

12/12/2026

Current GPA

3.17

Law School Class Rank (if known)

15 out of 38

Law School Honors, Awards or Special Recognitions

I published a case note titled "Cancellation of Removal in Wilkinson v. Garland" in THE GLOBE in September 2024. I continued to be employed by the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law as a Research Assistant on the uniform accommodations for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination and the bar examination.

Name of Undergraduate Institution

Valparaiso University

Degree (BA, BSE, etc.) and Concentration/Major

Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a concentration in Criminology

Undergraduate Graduation Date

12/18/2022

GPA

3.80

Undergraduate Honors, Awards, or Special Recognitions

Honors: Dean’s List (2021, 2022); The National Society of Leadership and Success Honor (2021)
Senior Seminar Project: Performed a theoretically designed study that involved conducting qualitative interviews with four immigration attorneys about their backgrounds and day-to-day tasks, and discovering how this impacts their interactions with undocumented people.

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

University of Illinois Chicago School of Law
Georges & Synowiecki Ltd.

What was your immediate family’s (including you and your spouse or domestic partner, if applicable) estimated income from all sources for the 2025 Tax Year?

35,000

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Viejo Express Inc. and Supermercado El Primo Inc.

Additionally, I plan to form an LLC or a corporation.

Please estimate your immediate family’s (including you and your spouse or domestic partner, if applicable) income from all sources for the 2026 Tax year

38,000

Please estimate your parent's average annual household income over the last five years

30,000

Do your parents own or rent their home? Please describe, if necessary

Own their home

Describe your parents' health insurance situation. Do they have employer-sponsored health insurance, health insurance through the exchange, or no health insurance?

My parents have state offered health insurance. The Healthy Indiana Plan.

LIST below your total EXPENSES for attending law school for ONE YEAR (Please refer to example in FAQs)

Total Tuition Cost $

$46,500

Books Cost $

$700

Fees Cost $

$4,640

Housing Cost $

$0.00

Food Cost $

$260

Other Costs $ (describe)

$364 South Shore Line Commuter Train

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

$52,464

LIST below your total FUNDING sources you plan to use to pay for these expenses (Please refer to example in FAQs)

Student Loans $

$54,640

Scholarships and Grants $

$4,140

Work Study, if any $

$0.00

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

$0.00

Family Contribution $ (include parents, spouse, partner, etc.)

$0.00

Other Sources $ (describe)

$0.00

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

$58,780

For 2Ls and 3Ls, what is your current TOTAL loan debt from the previous law school years?

$102,325.27

Please list any community service activities with which you have been involved in the last ten years, paying particular attention to activities in support of the Hispanic community. For each activity, please include the dates of your participation, a short description of the organization and the community they serve, and a description of the activity you performed to help them. (Please read FAQs before completing)

From August 5th, 2025, to today, I have owned a foreclosure home in Gary, Indiana, with my parents. Since then, I’ve employed Los Hermanos Govea to assist us in renovating the property. They are a primarily Hispanic contractor renovation group. I transport materials for them, translate for them, and have put some of their contractors in touch with immigration attorneys. I intend to open an LLC for a real estate venture that employs contractors like Los Hermanos Govea, allowing them to showcase their building skills in Northwest Indiana and to teach contractors how to obtain real estate through foreclosures and tax sales.

During the summer of 2025, I law clerked with Georges & Synowiecki Ltd.’s immigration division by responding to requests for evidence from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, preparing asylum applications, and translating for immigrants during Naturalization interviews. At this firm, we represented hotel, restaurant, and server workers through a Union contract that provided little to no cost to Union members.

From October 2023 to August 2024, I volunteered with the National Immigrant Justice Center as a volunteer Spanish translator for their detention team. I provided Spanish-English translations of conference calls between immigration attorneys and detained clients around the Midwest. Our clients were immigrants facing detention and deportation.

From February 2023 to May 2023, I volunteered as a paralegal with Catholic Charities' Immigrant Support and Assistance Center Program, assisting immigrants on a pro bono basis with their adjustment-of-status applications. The organization aimed to provide consultations, adjustment-of-status assistance, and to attend immigration court hearings for immigrants.

From September 2021 to June 2023, I worked as a paralegal for The Law Office of Mayra Rodriguez-Alvarez in Hammond, Indiana. We assisted immigrants from the Chicago-land area and the Region in adjusting their status through various application processes.

Please provide a statement describing your background and focus your statement on your reasons for pursuing a legal career and your legal career goals. This statement is important. Please give it appropriate attention. (min. 1000 characters) (Please read FAQs before completing)

Pay it forward, Sergio! I say this to myself because there is not a day that I am not grateful and reminded of how privileged I am. People have advised and supported me throughout my law school journey and beyond. For instance, outside of law school, I am currently listing a real estate property with my team. I am lucky to have a realtor, a contractor group, and my own family to help me navigate this first property. Although real estate investing is not law school, I’ve drawn on my law school skills to run my informal partnership with my dad.
As a first-generation Mexican-American, I did not consider ever becoming an entrepreneur, especially because I saw how much time my parents invested into their trucking and Hispanic grocery store businesses. It scared me. I also disliked it at times. Yet now I am more eager than ever to finish law school, become licensed, and open my own real estate venture. Despite the language barriers I see my contractors face as primarily Spanish-speaking, I intend to open a business and dedicate this upcoming summer of 2026 to it. Real estate venturing has helped me overcome challenges in taking courses I did not even consider taking in law school, such as secured transactions and federal income taxation. I realized that business is not bad because you can help so many people. I’ve witnessed it in my community, as I employ immigrants seeking opportunities to provide for their families. Before real estate, I knew and still know that I would help immigrants because I grew up in a mixed-status household. But now I have a passion for entrepreneurship and for diversifying the ways I help my community.
In the future, I want to clerk and learn about real estate law so that the inequities I have witnessed in housing can be overcome. From ensuring appraisers do not discriminate against people of color to ensuring all provisions of a listing agreement are correctly communicated to first-time sellers and buyers, especially when they are from underrepresented backgrounds, like my family. I thank the Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund of Illinois for taking the time to reread my story and for considering me for another scholarship.

Please upload a copy of your financial award letter labeled as follows: LastName.FirstName.FinAwardLtr*

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Hernandez.-Sergio.-FinAwardLtr.pdf

Please upload a copy of your resume labeled as follows: LastName.FirstName.Resume*

Please upload a copy of your law school transcript labeled as follows: LastName.FirstName.LSTranscript*