Robert E. Wone Fellowship | AEF will award the Robert E. Wone Fellowship to one applicant each year. Created in 2007, this fellowship is awarded to the applicant who most embodies what a former director, Robert E. Wone, sought to be as a lawyer—a trusted member of the community, making a difference in public policies and seeing his efforts improve the circumstances of those around him. The winner of the Wone Fellowship will receive a total stipend of $6,000.  The Wone Fellow will receive $5,500 of that stipend at the beginning of the summer. The Wone Fellow will then be responsible for completing the internship to the satisfaction of his or her employer, providing a written summary of the work he or she performed, and submitting a photo of himself or herself to appear in AEF’s annual newsletter. Upon fulfilling these conditions, the Wone Fellow will receive the remaining $500 of the stipend.

AEF Public Interest Fellowships | AEF will award AEF Fellowships to applicants who have a demonstrated commitment to public service.  Each AEF Fellow will receive a total stipend of $4,000.  Each AEF Fellow will receive $3,500 of that stipend at the beginning of the summer. Each AEF Fellow will then be responsible for completing the internship to the satisfaction of his or her employer, providing a written summary of the work he or she performed, and submitting a photo of himself or herself to appear in AEF’s annual newsletter. Upon fulfilling these conditions, each AEF Fellow will receive the remaining $500 of the stipend.

Patrick Reyes, Recipient of the 2024 Robert E. Wone Fellowship

Patrick Reyes is a rising 3L at the George Washington University Law School. This summer, he will be working as a law clerk in the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). Patrick has previously worked as a law clerk for the chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and as a legal intern in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas. Before law school, Patrick worked as a criminal defense paralegal at The Legal Aid Society in his hometown of New York City. Patrick looks forward to continuing to build on his passion for criminal defense work, learning how to be a better defender and advocate, and contributing to the great and necessary work that PDS is nationally known for doing this summer.

Sinporion Phuong, 2024 AEF Fellowship Recipient

Sinporion Phuong is a second-year law student at King Hall, UC Davis School of Law. There, he is a civil procedure tutor for first-years, a senior article editor for law review, and the banquet chair for APALSA, and he competed in several negotiations and moot court competitions. He has also previously interned at the California Supreme Court, Sacramento Public Defender's Office, and ACLU NorCal, and he will be joining the Public Defender Service at the District of Columbia Special Litigation Division in the Summer of 2024 and his law school's Civil Rights Clinic in the Spring of 2024. These experiences fuel his passion for ensuring that all individuals have proper representation regardless of their financial status or identity, and he hopes to have a career working towards direct criminal representation or towards impact criminal justice litigation.

Jihyang Kim, 2024 AEF Fellowship Recipient

Jihyang Kim is a South Korean-trained attorney and an LLM student in the International Legal Studies Program at Georgetown University Law Center. Before coming to Georgetown, she worked at the Korean Government Legal Service and the Korean Legal Aid Corporation, where she represented the Korean government in administrative and constitutional litigation and provided legal assistance to low-income families and multicultural individuals. She is passionate about providing legal aid to promote social justice and help those in need gain better access to legal services. As a legal intern at the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center in the summer of 2024, she looks forward to the opportunity to continue her commitment to public interest law and human rights.

Kevin Vo, 2024 AEF Fellowship Recipient

Kevin Vo is a rising 2L at The George Washington University Law School. This summer, he will be interning with Immigration Legal Services at Catholic Charities DC. There, he will assist foreign-born individuals and their families in a variety of immigration matters including asylum and removal defense. At GW Law, Kevin currently serves as a 1L Representative for the Immigration Law Association and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. He also volunteers with the International Refugee Assistance Project and is a member of Lambda Law. This upcoming academic year, he will serve as President of the Immigration Law Association and as a Senior Moderator for the Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Brief. Prior to law school, Kevin gained experience in employment-based immigration as a paralegal at a law firm. He looks forward to this summer in hopes of becoming a well-rounded immigration attorney.

Madeleine Yi, 2024 AEF Fellowship Recipient

Madeleine Yi is a rising 2L at Georgetown University Law Center and an incoming summer intern at Legal Aid D.C. in the Public Benefits Unit. At Legal Aid, she will assist with representing clients in court proceedings and before public agencies in cases related to food stamps, unemployment insurance, healthcare, TANF, and more. Before law school, Madeleine spent three years in the Federal Reserve Board’s International Finance division working on economic policy and research. At Georgetown, she will serve as the Public Sector Professional Chair of APALSA and was previously a Law Student Mentor at Georgetown’s Health Justice Alliance.