Scholar Entries - Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund of Illinois

← Go back

EmailEmail hidden; Javascript is required.

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

Name

Isabell Retamoza

Current Mailing Address

1929 N Keystone Ave
Chicago, IL 60639
United States
Map It

Permanent Address (only if different from Current Mailing Address)

1929 N Keystone Ave
Chicago, IL 60639
United States
Map It

Phone

(619) 916-9054

Connection to Illinois

I moved to Chicago after I graduated college in 2018.

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

Chicago

Name of Law School

University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Class year

2nd year law student

Full Time or Part Time Student?

Full Time

Date you began attending THIS law school

08/26/2024

Anticipated Graduation Date

05/09/2027

Current GPA

2.97

Name of Undergraduate Institution

University of California, Santa Cruz

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

B.A. in Literature and Feminist Studies

Undergraduate Graduation Date

06/08/2018

GPA

3.2

Undergraduate Honors, Awards, or Special Recognitions

James B. Hall Prize for Writing, 2014
David A. Kadish Humanities Scholarship for Writing in Feminist Studies, 2018
The Humanities Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowship for undergraduate thesis, 2018

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Legal Internship with Greater Chicago Legal Clinic from June to November 2025 (paid w/ scholarship).

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?

$71,576 (spouse's income)

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

The Cook County Public Defender's Office as a Volunteer Law Clerk (unpaid).

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

$72,000 (spouse's income estimate based on 2025).

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

n/a

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

n/a

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

n/a

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

Total Tuition Cost $

$35,840

Books Cost $

$1400

Fees Cost $

$1400

Housing Cost $

$1550

Food Cost $

$300

Other Costs $ (describe)

$360 (Public Transportation)

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

$39,450

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

Student Loans $

$35,483

Scholarships and Grants $

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

$3,967

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

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

$39,450

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

$63,454

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)

My family is part of the Friends of Friendship Park Community Organization that hosts events with families from both sides of the Tijuana border. Every time I'm in San Diego, we are a part of an event with this organization, including visiting migrant shelters and serving asylum seekers basic necessities in between the border fences

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)

I grew up in San Diego, less than twenty-five miles from the San Ysidro Port of Entry, widely recognized as the busiest border crossing in the world. Being Mexican American is, for me, inextricably linked to the U.S.-Mexico border and the culture of crossing that has shaped my family for generations. One of my family’s earliest stories is from my great-great-grandmother, Guadalupe, who crossed into the U.S. from southern Mexico in the early twentieth century with her thirteen children. As they traveled through the Texas desert under the cover of night, she lost her youngest son. Unable to stop the group to search for him, she carried that loss with her for the rest of her life, searching for her son’s eyes in every man who would have been his age. This story profoundly shaped how I understand the border and the enduring, often horrific conditions it has imposed on families like mine across generations. I never imagined that the systems enforced, and the trauma and loss inflicted, would only intensify.

These stories, and growing up so close to the border, shaped how I envisioned my career. I came to recognize the power attorneys have to materially change their clients’ lives. I wanted that power and knowledge to navigate systems that perpetuate inequality for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. During my first year of law school, I worked with the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic, where I assisted immigration attorneys and their clients. That experience deepened my understanding of the mechanisms that uphold borders and the broader U.S. immigration system. This work also made clear that there are often very few rewards for pursuing the “correct” or “legal” path to lawful status or citizenship. Especially, as we see daily, in a system where families and children who are citizens or lawfully present are still detained or separated based on race and perceived immigration status.

Being Mexican American and a first generation law student and aspiring lawyer, for me, means holding the U.S. accountable to its ideals of equality and liberty. I am pursuing a career in public interest law to narrow the gap between these ideals and lived reality, particularly for communities who experience the law most acutely as a tool of exclusion. The Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund would directly support my ability to continue this work. With your support, I can remain focused on my education and my commitment to serving communities that have long been excluded from meaningful access to justice. I intend to use my legal training to challenge inequitable systems, uphold constitutional promises, and meet this moment by continuing to advocate for a more just and humane framework for the systems intended to serve communities in need.

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

Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/hlsf2023/public/wp-content/plugins/syncs3-gravity-forms/includes/integrations/gravityview/integration.php on line 37

Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/hlsf2023/public/wp-content/plugins/syncs3-gravity-forms/includes/integrations/gravityview/integration.php on line 37
Retamoza_2025-26-Financial-Aid-Letter.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*