The following article is the first in a series of five spotlights of Golden Gate's Public Interest and Environmental Law Scholars. Each Scholar was interviewed by a current student. If you are a first-year student in the Public Interest or Environmental Law Scholar programs and are interested in finding either an upperclass or alumni mentor, please email lneta@ggu.edu.
Jonah Minkoff-Zern graduated from GGU in May. He currently serves as the Senior Organizer for the Constitutional Amendment Campaign for Public Citizen.After completing his undergraduate degree at Cornell University, Jonah traveled around the country for two years speaking and working for a national student organization which he started, Student Alliance to Reform Corporations. STARC challenges corporate influence on university practices and challenges the environmental and humanitarian impacts of corporate globalization. In 1999, Jonah helped organize a mass protest in Seattle against the World Trade Organization’s international meeting. About 50,000 people attended the protest which halted the WTO’s agenda and influenced significant changes in WTO’s approach to labor and environmental issues.
His experience as an Oakland school teacher prompted him to co-found the nonprofit Education Not Incarceration to address the problem of student dropouts ending up in prison. He played an influential role in persuading the National Education Association to make the issue of dropouts a national priority.
Jonah decided to go to law school to acquire new skills to advance his work for youth justice. While in law school, Jonah brought more youth law opportunities to Golden Gate and helped increase student involvement in social justice work.
Jonah advises fellow law students to remember we are privileged to be in law school and to use that privilege to benefit others and the earth. He adds that having a law degree should not separate us from our clients; we should always remember to treat our clients with dignity, as fellow human beings.
Interviewer: Elvin Vu is a 1L from San Francisco, California. He attended undergrad at Chico State. He is currently working with the Asian Law Caucus, the GI Rights Hotline, Asian American Bar Association, La Raza Student Group on Campus and is running for Social Chair of the Student Bar Association.
