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

Kylie Gava

Current Mailing Address

2604 W Rice St
Apt 2
Chicago, Illinois 60622
United States
Map It

Phone

(641) 990-9693

Connection to Illinois

Resident lived here since 2020

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

Chicago

Name of Law School

Chicago-Kent College of Law

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

05/17/2026

Current GPA

3.45

Law School Class Rank (if known)

77/226

Law School Honors, Awards or Special Recognitions

Chicago-Kent Certificate of Service, Justice John Paul Stevens Fellow Award, CALI Award Legal Writing III Fall 2024, Dean’s List Four Semesters

Name of Undergraduate Institution

University of Iowa

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

Bachelor of Fine Art and Minor in Portuguese

Undergraduate Graduation Date

05/18/2019

GPA

3.96

Undergraduate Honors, Awards, or Special Recognitions

Phi Beta Kappa Junior Year Elect, Stanley Award for International Research 2018, Summer Research Fellow for Professor Armando Duarte, Honors in Art with University Honors and with high distinction.

Were you employed in 2025?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Office of the Public Guardian Juvenile Division, Napleton and Partners

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?

Do you expect to be employed in 2026?

yes

If yes, please identify your employer(s).

Napleton and Partners through April 2026

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

26,000

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?

Through employer

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

Total Tuition Cost $

42,360

Books Cost $

1216

Fees Cost $

1182

Housing Cost $

10327

Food Cost $

10327

Other Costs $ (describe)

8531 school gym fee, personal expenses, licensure fee, transportation

Total Expenses $ (add above entries)

73,943

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

Student Loans $

48943

Scholarships and Grants $

25000

Work Study, if any $

Personal Contribution (Savings/Employment) $

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

Other Sources $ (describe)

Total Funding $ (add above entries)

73,943

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

250000

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)

Children Legal Services, Immigration non-profit, August 2023-Present, completed Asylum and Guardianship applications.
Office of the Public Guardian for Juvenile May 2025-August 2025, 711 Licensed
Center for Disability and Elder Law, May 2024-August 2024, John Paul Justice Stevens Fellow, provided services to low-income clients and elderly.
National Immigrant Justice Center 2023-Present, translating Portuguese for their immigration clients.

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)

Being Brazilian and United Statesian has fundamentally shaped both my academic path and my sense of self. I grew up mostly in small towns in Iowa, where I never met another Brazilian. When we visited Brazil, I experienced what felt like magic: eating mangoes straight from the tree, collecting mussels from the shore, and being picked up from the airport by my whole extended family. Despite the intimacy of those experiences, I was unable to communicate with the people around me. My identity felt divided, and part of me disappeared when I left each country.
Later when I was in the middle of my college education, and finishing my degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago became financially impossible, I redirected my path and moved to Brazil with the intention of learning Portuguese and connecting with my family. What followed was an intense and formative period of growth. I finalized my dual citizenship, learned Portuguese, and taught English. I could finally understand words I had heard years ago. Almost unbelievably, this period of learning Portuguese coincided with my father’s death in October 2013. I returned to the United States with my aunts, and I spoke with him in Portuguese for the first and last time. From that point forward, Portuguese became more than a skill; it was a bridge between countries, generations, and identities.
I finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa where I minored in Portuguese and majored in fine art. My degree culminated in receiving a grant for international research which allowed me to return to Brazil to study architectural security materials, focusing on an apartment building my grandfather constructed. After graduating, I worked at IC Compassion, a nonprofit providing low-cost immigration legal services in Iowa. I conducted client intakes, updated clients on their case, and prepared documentation for submission to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Drawing on my own experience navigating bureaucracy in a non-native language, I met clients with patience and empathy. When families sat across from me, anxious and uncertain, I recognized versions of my past self and felt compelled to return the help I had once received.
These experiences led me to law school, where I have continued to ground my legal education in public interest work with immigration being a throughline in my experiences. I began volunteering my 1L year at Children’s Legal Center’s (CLC) full-day asylum clinics. The following summer I was a Justice John Paul Stevens Fellow at the Center for Disability and Elder Law, where my team provided education to Hispanic communities in Berwyn on end-of-life planning and assisted families navigating guardianship proceedings for adult children with disabilities. I then joined the Office of the Public Guardian for Juveniles, coordinating between immigration attorneys and assistant public guardians for children with pending immigration cases. There, I saw how guardianship interacted between state court and immigration law, particularly for children whose immigration status depended on state court findings. This experience became vital to my volunteer work at CLC. As asylum applications were being so frequently denied, CLC began to focus on Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and I began assisting with those guardianship applications.
My past has never been separate from my present. Each experience through language, loss, art, and service has shaped the lawyer I hope to become. One of the most special volunteer services I participate in is translating Portuguese for the National Immigrant Justice Center, that role that connects me directly to my family, culture, and purpose in law while allowing me to offer clients clarity and dignity in their native language at moments of profound uncertainty. Drawing strength from my ancestry and the communities I serve; I intend to continue advocating for individuals and families navigating immigration and guardianship systems at moments of profound vulnerability.

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
Kylie-Gava_Financial-Aid.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*