SUNY BUFFALO LAW PHILANTHROPY - SUNY Buffalo Law School

WINTER 20117difference for our law students‘‘Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee,”said Ralph WaldoEmerson,and SUNY Buffalo Law School alumni whose giving supportsstudent scholarships are true to that ideal.Scholarship giving makes all thedifference for the recipients of that aid – and on a wider level,it helps to buildthe overall quality of each entering class of students.“As the admissions dean,I am immensely appreciative of the generosity of ouralumni to create scholarships that help us so much in our efforts to attract the beststudents to the Law School,”says Lillie Wiley-Upshaw,vice dean for admissions andfinancial aid.“In recent years,law schools across the country have significantly increasedtheir scholarship dollars in the millions.These alumni-funded scholarships help us tocompete for the best students.The students who receive the money are so grateful,and it makes a positive impact on their SUNY Buffalo Law experience.”Meet some of the beneficiaries of alumni-supported scholarship aid – bright,motivated students whose presence lifts SUNY Buffalo Law School even as theyacquire the tools of the legal trade.• • •It was a very good day, says CarrieZimbardi, when she learned she wouldreceive the Carmen P. Tarantino ’77Memorial Scholarship,which covers$15,000 a year of her Law School expenses.The scholarship, which honorsthe late Buffalo litigation attorney, isoffered to a student pursuing studies inlitigation.“Honestly, I’m still in shock,”Zimbardisays.“It motivates you to want tolive up to those expectations and thename of the attorney. But it also takes ahumongous weight off my shouldersabout all the debt I would have had afterlaw school. It means a lot more tome, maybe, than other people, becauseI’m a single mom, with 2-year-old twinsons.”Zimbardi, a West Seneca native whocontinues to work as a paralegal at asmall Buffalo law firm, majored in legalstudies as a UB undergraduate.“I wasalways a member of the mock trialteam,”she says.“I ran the undergraduateteam here at UB for four years, andwe traveled to Yale, Cornell, all the bignameschools.”And she did well, regularlywinning honors as best attorneyin the competitions.“Ever since then,”she says,“hearing feedback from theattorneys who serve as judges, I knewthat I wanted to be in court. I feel likethat’s what I’m meant to do. I want tobe in the heart of it.”She had offers from other lawschools,including a major offer fromOhio Northern University.But,she says,“I’ve always wanted to stay local.EverybodyI’ve ever known lives here in Buffalo.”Now her leap of faith in choosingSUNY Buffalo Law is paying off – eventhough,like all first-year law students,she is learning that the time demands oflegal education are “huge.”“In undergraduate school you go toclass,but you can get by without toomuch extra studying and time.It’s totallydifferent from that in law school,”shesays.“You have to put the time in and doall the readings.I do feel like I have a littleleg up because I’ve worked in the lawand know civil procedure.”Balancing that first-year work withher personal and work responsibilities,she acknowledges,is “a huge jugglingact,”but one she’s negotiating with thehelp of a supportive family.“When I hadmy twins,”she says,“I hadn’t gotten acceptedto law school,and a lot of peopleassumed I wasn’t going to go.I neverwanted to think like that.Having themwas not a deterrent to going to lawContinued on page 8