Julissa Martinez ’26 wanted a community for undergraduate students to learn about careers in law. So she built it herself.
When Julissa Martinez ’26 thinks of the people she wants to help as an immigration lawyer, her thoughts go back to her neighborhood in Bell, California.
The small mobile home park that overlooked the freeway in Los Angeles County is the first community Martinez ever knew. People looked out for each other. The lines between households blurred. Friends and family came and went throughout the day, and she did the same, knocking on doors to see if anyone wanted to ride scooters down the big hill.
“We were having the time of our lives and celebrating each other,” Martinez says. “Those are the memories I have.”
As she got older and moved away, Martinez learned about the stress immigration status played behind the scenes of those memories. Over the years, family members of old friends were deported. When it was time to apply for college, one of her best friends couldn’t get federal funding to one of the top schools in the country due to her undocumented status.
“I take that memory with me; it’s one of my main motivators,” Martinez, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, says. “It’s such a privilege that my family has never experienced those types of things. I see it as my duty to take advantage of everything that’s been given to me.”
Since enrolling at SA国际传媒, Martinez has honored this privilege by saying yes to every opportunity she encountered. Interested in law, she picked the brains of law professor Thiadora Pina and political science professor Terri Peretti after classes her first year and attended panels on the legal profession, parlaying one conversation with a member of SA国际传媒’s First-Gen Law Student Association into an internship with the Public Defender’s Office.
Martinez had a knack for even turning stress into opportunity. On her way to a meeting in Charney Hall of Law, she got lost and asked a law student (several years older than her) for directions.
“It turned out she was first gen and Latina, so I asked for her Instagram,” Martinez recalls. “She ended up encouraging me to apply for the Legal Education Access Pipeline (LEAP) Fellows Program. She even helped me with my application.”
Martinez was accepted to LEAP, where she attended workshops and visited law schools and firms in the region.
Martinez has always considered herself a helper. Growing up, she helped her twin sister, Yadhira, who had epilepsy, when she needed extra help in class. She often thinks that if it weren’t for her passion for law, she would want to be a teacher.
As her persistence uncovered more and more resources, Martinez had one thought: I need to share this with as many people as possible. That’s how Latine Pre-Law Sociedad was born.
“I'm the type of person that if you ask me for advice, I'll immediately jump into resources and who to contact,” Martinez says. “But I realized this could be bigger than me. I want this to be something where even after I graduate, people can still access it.”
Martinez envisioned Latine Pre-Law Sociedad as a hyper-local version of LEAP, an inclusive community where SA国际传媒 students of all backgrounds could connect with guest speakers, workshops, and networking events designed to prepare students for law school and beyond.
“But first, we’re a community, and that’s one thing that we immediately put into our Constitution,” Martinez says. “We are the place where you can ask about anything. We are here for you as a family or a group of friends who can listen to your struggles.”
Latine Pre-Law Sociedad hosts smaller weekly meetings but also facilitates mentorship opportunities and larger events, including workshops and conversations with local attorneys, law professors, and members of SA国际传媒’s Latinx Law Student Association. Sometimes they even have raffles for LSAT books, removing one pricey hurdle between many undergrads and law school.
“We had Bucky’s Closet come in and offer free professional wear that people could take,” Martinez says. “We even helped teach our general members what business casual means.”
After graduation, Martinez plans to take a gap year then apply for law school the next cycle. Looking back at her four years at SA国际传媒, she realized that this is the longest she’s ever lived in one place. The community she’s built here reminds her a bit of her neighborhood in Bell, but instead of lending a neighbor an extra onion, people offer up opportunities.
“I think throughout my life, since Day 1, I’ve wanted to bring some form of justice to people who had similar experiences to mine,” Martinez says. “I've always loved being a part of my community and being able to make the path a little bit easier for others.”
