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

Christopher Marquez

Current Mailing Address

16441 Haven Ave
Orland Hills, IL 60487
United States
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Phone

(815) 258-1853

Connection to Illinois

Lifelong Resident

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

08/14/2023

Anticipated Graduation Date

06/14/2026

Current GPA

3.729

Law School Honors, Awards or Special Recognitions

Deans List Fall 2023, Summer 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2025
Jerold S Solovy Diversity Scholar 2026
PRBA Scholar 2025

Name of Undergraduate Institution

Harvard University

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

BS Mechanical Engineering

Undergraduate Graduation Date

05/24/2018

GPA

3.5

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Norton Rose Fulbright, Northwestern University

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?

$40,000

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Norton Rose Fulbright (Fall 2026 start date).

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

$60000

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

$50000

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?

Union Retiree Health Insurance

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

Total Tuition Cost $

112950

Books Cost $

1776

Fees Cost $

861

Housing Cost $

15595

Food Cost $

6000

Other Costs $ (describe)

5919 (Health Insurance) 1312 (transportation) 7433 Misc Expenses [bills, phone, internet, clothing]

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

151846

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

Student Loans $

114346

Scholarships and Grants $

37500

Work Study, if any $

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

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

Other Sources $ (describe)

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

151846

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

275000

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)

NIJC Translator - About Monthly From 2024-2025 - Assisting applicants for asylum from Central and South American refugees by translating their stories to attorneys who were filling out their applications as part of a pro bono effort.
Winter Service Project - Five days in immigration court early January 2024, providing translation assistance to refugees sent from other states to Chicago. Prepared them for hearings, filled out change of venue forms and change of address forms, and sat with them as they awaited their hearings.
CPS After School Tutor with Peoples Gas - Every Wednesday for 1 hour: Sep 2019-Mar 2020, Sep 2022-June 2023 - After school math, science, and reading help for CPS students ages ranging from 1st grade to 8th grade. Also helped prepare science projects for students participating in Science Fair.

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)

Coming from a working-class background, with two parents who risked everything to come to this country makes me appreciate the value of hard work and commitment to my mission. I know that the work that I am doing now is the continuation of all of my family’s sacrifices and lost opportunities over generations of hardship and manual labor in construction and as migrant farm labor, and I hope that what I’ve accomplished over my life has proven not only what my own family was able to achieve in only one generation in the United States, but also what our entire community is capable of when we are given the opportunities to succeed. My own success was far from linear, and I hit personal lows and setbacks in my academic career, but I persevered through challenges like adjusting to being the first in my family to go to college, not to mention an Ivy League university on the other side of the country. There were times in college that I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish my degree or pass classes like my fluid dynamics class, which I had to withdraw from and retake (and get an A in the second time around). I graduated with an engineering degree in a field where Latine people are already widely underrepresented, and I felt proud to represent my community in that space and show the world what we can do when we put our hearts into it.
Bringing my talents back to the city I grew up in meant serving my community as an engineer in a gas utility, building Chicago as my father had as a construction worker for 35 years, except this time from the neck up. I was able to grow in this role that many other Harvard grads may have scoffed at because I had so many people to support me and trust me to handle complicated projects. I was able to see myself leading projects and organizations, not simply contributing to their success. Thanks to working alongside attorneys at the utility who were spearheading some of these initiatives in the company, I knew how I wanted to use the law degree that I sought since high school, and made the decision to take the plunge once again at Northwestern and pursue my dream of a law degree. I wanted to use my love of building things and giving back to my community to build clean energy generation for my city and for my community. Knowing that the Latine community disproportionately suffers from the consequences of fossil fuel pollution and climate change makes me even more committed to this cause.
As I enter the final year of law school, the world looks much different today than it did when I began my program. I never believed that we would be fighting for our basic constitutional rights and freedoms as American citizens and witness members of the Latine community facing so much animosity across the government and the media. Being in the position I am now, as a soon-to-be attorney, I know that I want to progress through my career and stand as an advocate for my community, continuing to fight for our rights and presence within law schools and the broader community. We are such a large source of untapped potential, and we are what makes this country great. We are the future of America, and I want more young students who grew up like me to realize their own power and potential. I look forward to being a part of HLAI after completing my law degree and advocating for my community in law schools, in the legal profession, and in the justice system because I would not be here at the finish line were it not for the countless others who supported me along the way.

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

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Marquez.Chris_.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*