(Pittsburgh, August 4, 2006) – The Pittsburgh office of top 20 international law firm Reed Smith LLP has selected Cory Hester as this year’s recipient of its prestigious Reed Smith Fellowship. This is the 5th year the fellowship has been awarded. The Fellowship is awarded annually to a first-year law student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who has surmounted economic or social adversity in pursuit of earning a law degree.
Mr. Hester grew up in what he describes as “one of the worst school districts in Maryland,” but managed to transcend the horrors of an increasingly violent neighborhood to graduate from Towson University in May 2005, with a BS in sociology, anthropology and psychology.
A high achiever in academics and athletics in both high school and college, Mr. Hester was elected senior captain on the Towson University football team and named to the Verizon National All-Scholastic Team and the Patriot League All-Academic Team. He won the Cultural Enrichment and Enhancement Program Diversity Award at Towson University as well.
In addition, Mr. Hester served on the Board of the Towson Black Student Union and the Towson Pre-Law Society, and as a mentor for two inner-city youth in the university’s Project Lean On Us (LoU). He was also a founding member of the Coats for Kids program on the Towson University campus.
The Reed Smith Fellowship provides in-state tuition for Mr. Hester’s two final years of law school, as well as affords him an opportunity to work at Reed Smith during the summer after his second year of law school.
"Cory’s passion and determination to beat the odds despite tremendous hurdles made him an ideal candidate for this year’s Fellowship," said Cathy Bissoon, Reed Smith’s Director of Diversity. “Reed Smith is pleased to provide assistance to students like Cory who have sustained a high level of commitment to better themselves and their communities through hard work and academic achievement. It is particularly gratifying that such upstanding and inspiring young people are attracted to the legal profession. We are delighted to have this opportunity to recognize and celebrate his outstanding achievement.”
The Reed Smith Fellowship was established in 2002 as an annual award to a beginning second-year law student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who overcomes adversity in pursuit of a legal education. To compete for the honor, students must write an essay describing how they encountered and overcame economic or social adversity. Applicants also must demonstrate commitment to the community and involvement in extracurricular activities to be competitive for the scholarship
“The University of Pittsburgh Law School faculty and student body congratulate Cory on being selected for this stellar award,” said Mary A. Crossley, Dean of the law school. “He is a motivated and extremely capable student from whom we expect much in the years ahead. We know how much education and success mean to Cory and his family. He is certainly exceptionally well qualified to make excellent use of this opportunity.”
In his application essay, Mr. Hester described an adolescence in which he never considered going to college as a real possibility. His school district was ranked 23rd out of Maryland’s 24 school districts, and his high school’s average SAT score was below 800, he explained.
But his ideas about college attendance changed when within a brief period his father was car-jacked at gunpoint and a neighbor was murdered in his front yard, while Cory and his parents listened to the shots from inside their home. As he describes his epiphany, as he viewed his neighbor’s lifeless body in the moments after the shooting, his number one goal became getting “myself and my family out of the neighborhood we were in.”
Applying himself on both the athletic field and the classroom, Mr. Hester earned both a football and athletic scholarships to college, and set the wheels in motion to achieve this objective.
“The day I became the first person from my family to graduate from college was one of the happiest days of my life,” Mr. Hester writes. “This drove me to pursue an even higher level of education in law school. I greatly appreciate Reed Smith’s recognition of and support for my decision to play a role in the solution to crime and injustice in the world. I am truly grateful to be selected for this fellowship opportunity and pledge to use it to achieve the goals I set for my family and myself in the future.”
Mr. Hester will be honored at a reception at Reed Smith on August 22, 2006.
About Reed Smith
Reed Smith LLP is a top-25 international law firm with 1,000 lawyers located in 18 cities worldwide (14 in the U.S. and four in Europe). The firm represents clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to mid-market and emerging companies. Clients include financial services firms, life sciences companies, health care providers, technology companies and entrepreneurs, power generators and suppliers, manufacturers, real estate companies, universities, and non-profit organizations throughout the world. For more information, visit www.reedsmith.com.