Press Release

Touro College

Contact:
      Director of Communications
      Patti Desrochers
      (631) 761-7062
      Fax (631) 761-7069
      pdesrochers@tourolaw.edu

For Immediate Release

Touro Law Students Volunteer to Make a Difference in Katrina-Affected Region

Central Islip, NY – November 4, 2008 - Thirty-six students from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center recently volunteered for a week in New Orleans, a city and region still trying to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina hit the area in 2005. The students volunteered with eight different organizations, using their legal education to benefit the groups they worked for and the people of the Gulf Coast.

Students worked with the New Orleans Public Defenders, Common Ground, the Common Ground Legal Clinic, and The Alliance for Affordable Energy, among others. Students worked on a variety of projects, searching a community group’s documents to determine whether the community had groundwater contamination claims, helping to revive legislation, exploring employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, working on cases of contactor fraud, and so much more.

“It was amazing to accompany these students on this trip,” said Tracy McGaugh, professor of law and Assistant Dean of Academic Advising for Touro who went with the students to New Orleans. “I felt that I was not watching law students fulfill a pro bono requirement; rather I was watching law students in action, doing great work and developing into community leaders. I was so impressed with the caliber of the work they completed and the real differences they made. It was truly an amazing week.”

Many of the students who volunteered in New Orleans intend to return during Spring break to continue helping rebuild the area.

“It’s so important for people to remember that this region still needs so much help,” said Farije Dalipi, president of the Student Hurricane Network Touro Law Chapter and organizer of the student volunteers. “We do make a difference every time we visit, but there is so much work to do, it is heartbreaking to leave.”

Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center has a new 185,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art law campus adjacent to and working with a state and a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. Touro’s new campus provides a one-of-a kind learning model for law students, combining a rigorous curriculum taught by expert faculty with a practical courtroom experience. Touro, which has a student body of approximately 750 and an alumni base of nearly 5,000, offers full- and part-time J.D. programs as well as graduate law programs.

Touro College has experienced phenomenal growth since its founding in 1971, and is currently educating approximately 17,500 students at locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Jerusalem, Moscow, Berlin and Paris. Touro College continues to have a profound impact on the lives of its students and on the Jewish and general communities. For further information on Touro College, please go to http://www.touro.edu/media/.

Touro College
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