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

Anna Yessica Tello

Current Mailing Address

4205 N Sheridan Rd
Apt 1
Chicago, IL 60613
United States
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Permanent Address (only if different from Current Mailing Address)

United States
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Phone

(815) 345-6961

Connection to Illinois

Native Illinoisan

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

Chicago, IL

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

08/15/2023

Anticipated Graduation Date

05/01/2026

Current GPA

3.14

Law School Honors, Awards or Special Recognitions

• Latinx Law Student Association, President
• Student Bar Association, HLAI Representative
• Criminal Law Society, Social Media Coordinator
• First Generation Law Student Association
• Moot Court Honors Program
• Herzog Moot Court Competition, Petitioner’s Brief Honorable Mention
• Trial Advocacy Dispute Resolution Honors Program
• Trial Advocacy Premiere Trial Competition, Professionalism Award

Name of Undergraduate Institution

George Mason University

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

BA in Government and International Politics & a minor in Law & Philosophy

Undergraduate Graduation Date

05/01/2021

GPA

3.4

Undergraduate Honors, Awards, or Special Recognitions

• Hispanic Student Association, President and Marketing Intern
• GMU Task Force on Anti-Racism & Inclusive Excellence

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Illinois Office of the State’s Attorney Appellate Prosecutor, June 2025 -- July 2025
Costa Ivone, LLC, January 2025 -- March 2025

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?

~$10,000

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

TBD -- I expect not to be employed until September of this year. I am still looking for post-graduation positions.

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

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

$120,000

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

Own (mortgage is still being paid)

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

My mother has employer-sponsored health insurance, however she's been informed that her building will be shutting down by the end of the year and departments will be laid off each quarter. She will receive 2 months of additional health insurance after she is laid off.

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

Total Tuition Cost $

$40,000

Books Cost $

$1400

Fees Cost $

$1500

Housing Cost $

$12,000 (rent)

Food Cost $

$5,000

Other Costs $ (describe)

$10,400 (car bill), $2,400 (utilities), $1,900 (Themis Bar Prep Course), $2,700 (gas + CTA transportation), Laptop ($2,000), $1,500 (bar exam + laptop fee), $200 (Cap + Gown)

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

$81,000

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

Student Loans $

$68,852

Scholarships and Grants $

$3,000

Work Study, if any $

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

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

$2,000

Other Sources $ (describe)

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

$73,852

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

roughly $180,000

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)

- Toiletry Drives through UIC's Latinx Law Student Association (throughout spring and fall semesters of 2025)
- Rapid Response Training (know your rights & migra watch) w/ Pilsen Puño (November 2025)
- Fundraised for the recent Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean (November/December 2025) -- proceeds were sent to the United Nations Foundation for the Country Based Pooled Fund that was meant to distribute all funds across the impacted countries (i.e. Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba)
- Hosted and organized a soccer tournament fundraiser with all neighboring Chicago Law Schools (October 2025) -- proceeds were sent to Casa Central, one of the largest Latino social service agencies in the Midwest which aims to meet the needs of the Latino community and equip them with the necessary resources to achieve a sustainable, higher quality of life for the benefit of self, family, community and society.

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 not sure if I should be treating you like an adult or like a baby.” These were the first words ever spoken to me by a college professor. I was sixteen years old, a junior in high school and, simultaneously, a freshman in college. I was one of ten students selected for my school district’s inaugural Accelerate College Dual-Credit Program, an opportunity that would ultimately allow me to graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate degree.

When I received my acceptance letter, I rushed home to share the news with my immigrant mother. While I was overwhelmed with excitement, her first concern was not academic rigor or prestige, but whether I would be able to drive safely through Midwestern snowstorms. That concern soon expanded into many others. She worried about my safety and whether the demands of college would be too much for her child. She feared I was too young, that college would be overwhelming, and that the world beyond our home would be unforgiving. Her fear was not rooted in doubt, but in love, and in her own lived experience navigating systems that were unfamiliar, unforgiving, and rarely designed to protect people like us.

Over time, those fears became my own. My professor’s comment echoed the doubts I carried with me. Would I be taken seriously? Could I succeed in spaces where I was both the youngest person in the room and one of the few students from my background? As a Mexican-American and a first-generation college student, I felt the tension between being encouraged to pursue opportunity and being quietly expected to remain within the boundaries of familiarity.

Despite this uncertainty, I found myself fully engaged in my coursework. I was drawn to classes that required close analysis, structured argument, and careful reasoning, skills that later solidified my interest in the law. By my second semester, I had gained confidence, and it was then that I joined ASPIRE 1G, an organization for first-generation college students.

After serving one semester as the organization’s marketing officer, I was elected President. Even I was surprised. I was still learning how to navigate college expectations, yet I was entrusted with leading students who were older and more experienced than I was. Through this role, I discovered how many of us shared the same internal conflict. We were urged to build better lives for ourselves while feeling restrained by the fears our families carried from their own experiences. Many of us came from households where caution was a survival skill, and institutions were something to be endured, not trusted.

Leading ASPIRE 1G taught me how to advocate, not only for myself, but for many others whose voices were shaped by hesitation and exclusion. It also revealed something crucial. It showed me where power truly exists. Decisions that deeply affect our communities are made inside rooms we are rarely invited into. That realization shaped my goal of becoming a criminal prosecutor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. I want to be inside those rooms, at the table, where discretion is exercised, and justice is shaped. I want to bring fairness, accountability, and an understanding of community impact to decisions that too often feel distant from the people they affect most.

I aspire to serve as a prosecutor who understands both the power and the responsibility of that role. Someone who approaches charging decisions, negotiations, and advocacy with fairness, judgment, and awareness of the broader impact on communities like my own. My background allows me to see how fear, access, and mistrust influence people’s interactions with the criminal legal system, and it motivates me to pursue justice in a way that is informed by community impact, not detached from it.

If nothing else, I believe the one characteristic I have stayed true to all my life is not backing down or turning away from an opportunity out of fear of failing. Had I allowed my own doubts or my mother’s fears to define my choices, I would not have earned my associate degree a day before my high school diploma, nor would I have been able to graduate with my Bachelor’s degree at just 20 years old.

Receiving this scholarship would allow me to continue this path with focus and intention. It would ease financial strain and enable me to fully engage in my legal education and professional development. I am committed to honoring this investment by pursuing a career in public service, one grounded in accountability, thoughtful decision-making, and a deep commitment to justice for the communities that shaped me.

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

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Tello.Anna_.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*