Scholar Entries - Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund of Illinois

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

Name

Guadalupe Bustillos

Current Mailing Address

626 E Woodland Park
#101
Chicago, IL 60616
United States
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Permanent Address (only if different from Current Mailing Address)

626 E Woodland Park Ave
#101
Chicago, IL 60616
United States
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Phone

(602) 815-0393

Connection to Illinois

I moved for school, am registered to vote & licensed to drive here, plan to stay in IL graduation

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

Chicago

Name of Law School

University of Illinios Chicago

Class year

3rd year law student

Full Time or Part Time Student?

Full Time

Date you began attending THIS law school

08/22/2023

Anticipated Graduation Date

05/09/2026

Current GPA

2.76

Name of Undergraduate Institution

Grand Canyon University

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

Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice

Undergraduate Graduation Date

07/08/2018

GPA

3.46

Undergraduate Honors, Awards, or Special Recognitions

Cum Laude

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge, LLC., Chicago, IL
DoorDash

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?

12,759

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

DoorDash (currently not doing DoorDash because our car is in Phoenix and I have to use public transporation)

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

Unknown

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

500,000

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

Own

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

employer-sponsored health insurance

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

Total Tuition Cost $

36,000

Books Cost $

1,400

Fees Cost $

7,240

Housing Cost $

28,800

Food Cost $

8,000

Other Costs $ (describe)

Car payment: 6,420 Credit Card Payments: $500 per month

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

87,060

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

Student Loans $

70,316

Scholarships and Grants $

Work Study, if any $

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

0 (since I am not able to do DoorDash right now)

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

35,000

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

105,316

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

184,836

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)

I have not participated in community service activities other than assisting individuals at the Maricopa County Superior Court where the majority of people who came in were Hispanic or through my employment helping translate for Spanish speakers.

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)

As a first generation Hispanic woman from Phoenix, I grew up watching people I love struggle to navigate systems that were never built with them in mind. I have seen how severely underrepresented my people are in terms of legal service. I have seen how my people get taken advantage of by not only lawyers but people in positions of power because they know they do not understand English, much less the legal process and legal jargon. I have watched so many people sign documents simply hoping that whoever is translating them is not only translating them correctly but has their best interest in mind. Throughout my career, there have been so many of these little moments that looking back on them now, I realize were moments that were meant to help me get to this point in life – the moment of preparing myself to sit for the Illinois Bar to become an attorney that helps my community.
Before graduating from Grand Canyon University, I questioned my purpose constantly like many people in their 20s. However, all of that changed once I started working in the legal field. As I sit here writing this, I realize now that there were two specific moments during this time that shaped not only who I am but lit a fire in me to become something more than just an assistant. The first was during a meeting, an employer telling me there are only two types of people who want to become lawyers: those who want to “help” people and those who want to make money. He said it with a smirk and finger quotes, as if helping people was unrealistic motivation. Those two statements took me by surprise because I naively thought: Don’t all attorneys want to help people? That conversation upset me more than I thought it would, but it also made me realize that there really are people in this world that take advantage of others simply because they know they’ll get away with it. The second moment was when I helped an older Hispanic gentleman during my time at the Maricopa County Superior Court Law Library. He came in with some documents, a complaint, and did not know what it was. Come to find out, he was getting sued by a large corporation and did not even know why. I remember looking at him and seeing my grandfather in him and was suddenly overcome with emotion. How can people be so heartless? After helping him fill out the documents he needed and giving him the directions to the Arizona State University Pro Bono Clinic, he looked at me and said “Que bueno que estas estudiando para ayudarnos mija, gracias por ayudarme con esto.” In that moment I realized that this gap that exists between Hispanics and the legal field needs to be fixed. How was I going to fix it? By becoming a bilingual attorney.
Being Hispanic is not just a part of my identity. It is the source of my strength and a constant reminder of why I came back to school 5 years after being out. Especially now with everything that is going on and experiencing it firsthand with my husband, who was undocumented and had to go through the immigration process to obtain his residency card, the fear in people of not knowing what to do and just hoping someone will help them is heartbreaking to watch. Seeing my own parents, both immigrants from Mexico, build something in a country that is not their own and navigating the world despite the language barriers is the resilience and determination I carry with me every day. Their sacrifices in order to give me a better life and have the privilege of even being able to attend law school is something I will never take for granted because I know how hard these sacrifices have been for them, especially now that they are older.
Although I have not participated in much community service over the last 10 years, I believe that through my work as a legal assistant I have been able to serve my community in ways that matter deeply. After seeing people lose faith because no one took the time to listen to them or because they felt that they were not being respected simply because the did not understand the process, I decided that my approach with clients had to be different. Bit by bit, I have been able to close the gap between Hispanics and the legal system not because I had all the answers, but because I treated them with patience, dignity, and respect – something many people do not realize is extremely important. I have translated documents for older Hispanic clients who were terrified they were being taken advantage of, explained lawsuits to people who did not even know they had been sued or knew what steps to take next, sat with new mothers who felt defeated by a system that dismissed them simply because they misunderstood something. Every time someone has asked me if I speak Spanish and I say “Sí, como le puedo ayudar,” to see the relief in their eyes is one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced. That is service, even if it is not on a volunteer log. In these moments I have realized that representation really does matter because while I may have helped change their lives, they also changed mine without realizing it. All of my experiences have shaped my commitment to becoming a lawyer who leads with empathy and integrity because want to be the kind of attorney who remembers that every client is a human being with fears, hopes, and a story that deserves respect. Just because we deal with something every day does not mean we should forget that for some people, reaching out to an attorney could just be the worst day of their lives.
When I decided to leave Phoenix and move to Chicago for law school, it was one of the easiest yet hardest decisions I have made. I moved to a city where I knew no one but determined to finish out my three years of law school and become an attorney. Law school has tested me in ways I definitely did not expect, but it has also made me discover a strength I did not know I had. At the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, I have taken on leadership roles, like serving as Alumni Chair for the Latinx Law Student Association and representing the organization on the Multicultural Law Students Advisory Board. As the representative on the Multicultural Law Students Advisory Board, I have been able to advocate for our students and explain what it is that we need to succeed in a place that we already feel we do not belong. To this day, I am able to have conversation with the Dean of the program about inclusivity and explain to him situations that are going on with students and what the school can do to help and actually feel heard. One of those situations I mentioned to him was when a Dean told me that I shouldn’t think about applying to federal clerkships because “I was barely doing well enough to stay in school to even get into the program.” In that moment I realized that I was my biggest advocate and no one was going to tell me what to do. More importantly, I learned that while people are always entitled to their opinions, you don’t have to listen to them. Because at the end of the day, that is what they are – opinions.
While I have the help of my family to pay my living expenses, receiving this scholarship would truly be an enormous help in not adding extra pressure on my dad as I prepare to pay for bar expenses. While my student loans are a big help, most of the refund I will receive from them will be going towards debt incurred during my husband’s immigration process when he was unable to work and now some unexpected expenses due to my husband’s recent surgery that left him unable to work for the next few months. I am a very lucky girl in never having had to struggle financially. However, any relief I can give my dad with expenses since he is the one that helps me during the school year, is always greatly appreciated. We are on this Earth for a short time, and I hope to spend my life using not only the law, but my empathy and patience to uplift the communities that raised me, inspired me, and continue to give me strength. Receiving this scholarship would help me be one step closer to that goal. Thank you.

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

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Bustillos.Guadalupe.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*