Sanaz Charezaie and Yvette Ochoa, two third year students at Western State University College of Law, were awarded post-graduation scholarships by the Orange County Women Lawyers Association at the organization’s monthly meeting on May 4th at the City Club in Orange.

The period between graduation and sitting for the bar examination is a stressful time when many law school graduates find they have to reduce their workload to devote time to bar study.  The membership of the OCWLA created the Annual Bar Stipend Scholarship to ease the financial hardship during this critical time.

Scholarship recipients were each presented with a check for one thousand dollars by outgoing OCWLA President, Betty Fracisco, herself a graduate of Western State. 

Charezaie and Ochoa are accomplished students who nevertheless were active in student government and performed an exceptional amount of public service.  Charezaie interned for both the Orange County Superior Court and the California Court of Appeal.  She promoted diversity awareness on campus, both as a student government representative and as a member of Western State’s Diversity Committee; her OCWLA Bar Stipend Scholarship was in special recognition of her diversity efforts.

Ochoa served on the boards of both the Women’s Law Association and the Criminal Law Association at Western State, and she was selected by the faculty to serve as a student member to the elite Peter Elliott Inn of Court.  She was presented with a Certificate of Distinguished Public Service by the school for the exceptional amount of time she devoted to a Western State pro bono program that assists members of the public with preparing their taxes.  She is employed by a family law practitioner who will be promoting her to associate attorney after she passes the bar exam.

The Orange County Women Lawyers Association is one of the largest professional associations in California devoted to the advancement of women attorneys and the furtherance of women’s rights.   Among the Western State University alumni who serve on its board and also in attendance at the May luncheon are Terese Oliver, Past-President; Patricia Lee-Gulley, Vice-President, and Melinda Bell, President-Elect.