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

MariaJose De la Hoz

Current Mailing Address

5336 S Calumet Ave
Unit 1
Chicago, IL 60615
United States
Map It

Phone

(772) 913-3647

Connection to Illinois

I am attending law school at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and plan to practice in Chicago.

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

Chicago

Name of Law School

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Class year

3rd year law student

Full Time or Part Time Student?

Full Time

Date you began attending THIS law school

08/20/2024

Anticipated Graduation Date

05/15/2026

Current GPA

3.622

Law School Honors, Awards or Special Recognitions

Transferred from Chicago-Kent College of Law after 1L
-CALI Award for Excellence in Torts (Fall 2023)
-Dean's List: Fall 2023, Spring 2024
-Served as 1L Representative for Hispanic Latino Law Student Association
-Vice President of Lambdas (LGBTQ Student Organizaton)

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
-Dean's List: Fall 2024, Fall 2025
-President of Diversity Coalition (September 2024 - May 2025)
-Symposium Editor for Journal of Law and Social Policy - Spring 2025
-Octofinalist for the Miner Moot Court Competition
-Participant for UCLA's William's Institute Moot Court Competition on Gender and Sexuality Law

Recipient of Jerod Solovy Scholarship from the Diversity Scholarship Foundation

Also, my note "Frozen Identity: How Rigid Conceptions of Sexuality Endanger Lesbian Asylum Claims" will be published

Name of Undergraduate Institution

University of Central Florida

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

B.S. in Hospitality Management - Event Management

Undergraduate Graduation Date

05/17/2013

GPA

3.45

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Barnes and Thornburg LLP
Summer Associate over the summer and Law Clerk during the school year

Additionally, I dog sit on Rover for additional income

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?

70000

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Barnes and Thornburg as a law clerk and as a first year associate in September

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

120000

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

25000

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

Rent, my mom lives in low income housing

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

My mom currently has affordable care act insurance but it does not cover her medical expenses

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

Total Tuition Cost $

79772

Books Cost $

3000

Fees Cost $

6781

Housing Cost $

26400

Food Cost $

14400

Other Costs $ (describe)

12240 (360 car payment 1 + 380 car payment 2 + 280 car insurance) + 2160 (180 monthly phone payment) + 2160 (180 electricity) + 1200 (gas) + 16720 (Sallie Mae/debt payments) + 3440 (medical expenses for chronic disease) + 1200 (family support) + 12000 (lawyer and immigration fees) + 21536 (varied utilities, expenses for the kids, additional family support, gas, etc)

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

203009

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

Student Loans $

143206

Scholarships and Grants $

2500

Work Study, if any $

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

57300

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

Other Sources $ (describe)

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

203009

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

296067

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)

Throughout my law school career, I have been committed to advancing diversity initiatives for current and prospective law school students. Additionally, I am currently a member of Northwestern's LGBTQ+ Clinic where I work on name change hearings, policy research for diversity in the federal judiciary, and most recently, we researched and wrote for an amicus brief for the First Circuit Court of Appeals to support transgender plaintiffs in Puerto Rico.
I served as the president of Northwestern's Diversity Coalition from September 2024 - May 2025. In this role, I served on a Dean's Diversity Committee, coordinated a mentorship program between Big Law attorneys and current students, and oversaw events and programs with a budget of $8,000.
I have also volunteered with the Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program to mentor 1Ls and provide advice on succeeding in law school since April 2024. Finally, I have volunteered with the Puerto Rican Bar Association to help with registration and event logistics since January 2024.
I have been a member of Lambda Theta Alpha, Latin Sorority, Incorporated since April 2018. As a member, I have supported local initiatives in Miami, Orlando, Chicago, and Evanston for Latina professionals and students. Within LTA, I have served in several roles including President of the Alpha Zeta Alumnae Chapter (2020-2021), committee member for the National Cultural Competency Task Force (2019-2020), participant in Lambda Hill Days (2023), community service committee (2022 - present), recruitment and retention committee (2018 - 2021), and political education committee (2020-2023). As a member of the National Expansion Committee, I also worked to expand Lambda Theta Alpha to universities in rural areas to support Latina students in their academic endeavors.

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 am exactly who I am because of my mother. She came to the United States in her twenties from Barranquilla, Colombia, seeking better opportunities after growing up in a city plagued by guerrilla violence and instability. She is, and always has been, full of heart, compassion, and talent. She has also always worked in a world that did not value those traits. As a single mother, she found work as a special education paraprofessional so she could be on the same schedule as her four children. When she could, she picked up odd jobs painting murals or helping families with children with disabilities to make ends meet. To this day, she is the most talented artist I have ever known.

I cannot share who I am without sharing who my mother is because, in addition to giving me the gift of life, she has supported every single adventure I have embarked on, including my legal career. In college, I changed majors more times than I can count. I started out as a theatre major, but a professor told me I would struggle to succeed as a woman of color. I believed her and switched to marketing. During an unpaid marketing internship, I was told there was no budget to pay me for graphic design or strategy work, but that I could be paid to clean the office. They called me “Consuela” and mocked me when I came in to clean. Although my mother may not have loved it when I was growing up, she taught me how to stand up for myself. I left those environments, taking what I could learn, but never internalizing the idea that I did not belong.

When I began my professional career, I sought to give to the world in the way my mother always had. I worked at a nonprofit providing disability services, focusing on fundraising events and marketing initiatives. Eventually, I transitioned into higher education and college student affairs, following the drive for education that my mother instilled in me from a young age. Unfortunately, both the nonprofit and higher education sectors thrive on the passion and hope of young professionals while often failing to provide adequate compensation or long-term stability. For better or for worse, I have inherited my mother’s heart. I may not have always known what to do with it, but I knew I could figure it out.

Over time, I came to understand that law offered the most effective way to translate my values into durable, systemic change. I was drawn to the legal profession because I wanted to provide practical solutions for people of color and Spanish-speaking families navigating complex and often inaccessible systems. At first glance, my current career path as a litigation associate may not appear to align with that aspiration. However, that perception could not be further from the truth.

I have been blessed to find myself in a law firm that focuses on business law, intellectual property, and commercial litigation, while also allowing me to remain grounded in my values. During my time as a summer associate and law clerk, I learned that I do not have to dissolve my principles in order to provide for my family. Through my earnings, I have been able to pay the legal and immigration fees necessary to bring my wife’s three children from Colombia to the United States. After providing for them from afar for three years, reuniting our family has been the greatest gift the universe has ever given me. I have also been able to support my wife as she works toward her educational goals; she is currently pursuing English proficiency in order to obtain her bachelor’s degree. Knowing that I will be able to support each of my three children as they pursue higher education fills me with immense pride and purpose. They are a daily reminder that my compassion does not begin and end at my job, it extends into the lives I am responsible for shaping and protecting.

Beyond my immediate family, my youngest brother aspires to attend medical school, and I know I will be able to support him in that journey as well. Most importantly, I hope to care for my mother in the way she has always cared for others. My legal career is not only a professional achievement; it is a vehicle through which I can redistribute stability, opportunity, and access to the people who made my success possible. I have already been able to support pro bono work for immigration clients filing for asylum petitions, volunteer with legal aid clinics, and translate documents for pro se litigants. My commitment to community service has not always taken traditional or visible forms, but it has always been present. Whether supporting individuals with disabilities, advocating for students in higher education, mentoring peers, or using my legal knowledge and resources to navigate immigration systems for my family, my service has been rooted in care and persistence. These experiences have shaped my understanding of justice as something that must be lived, not merely studied.

Being a Latina woman has shaped not only how I have been treated, but how I understand power and responsibility. I have experienced the ways race and gender intersect to limit perceived value, to normalize exploitation, and to demand gratitude for opportunities that should be equitably accessible. At the same time, my racial identity has been a source of strength and clarity. It has grounded me in community, taught me resilience, and instilled a deep sense of obligation to those who come after me. I carry with me the stories of immigrants, caregivers, artists, and workers whose labor sustains systems that rarely reward them.

The attorney I hope to become is not fundamentally different from the person I am today, but one who is better equipped to live her values with intention and impact. Coming from a low-income background, I am committed to empowering others from similar circumstances to pursue education, stability, and professional success. I want to help break generational cycles of precarity by making the law more accessible, humane, and responsive to real needs. I intend to mentor students from underrepresented backgrounds, provide meaningful advocacy for immigrant and Spanish-speaking communities, and support initiatives that expand educational and economic opportunity.

This scholarship would not only support my legal education; it would affirm the possibility of a future where compassion and competence coexist, where ancestry is a source of strength rather than limitation, and where the law serves as a bridge rather than a barrier. I carry my mother’s heart with me into every space I enter. As an attorney, I intend to ensure that heart has the tools, authority, and platform to create lasting change.

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

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De-la-Hoz.MariaJose.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*