A Legal Defense Fund Policy Fellow fights for educational justice
When Sarah Seo was teaching kindergarten in New Orleans several years ago, she began to reckon with an education system marked by disinvestment.
“I thought about going into law to have involvement in more structural change.” Now, after earning a J.D. from Fordham last spring, she’s a policy fellow at the Legal Defense Fund in Manhattan.
Originally from Los Angeles, Seo describes New York as a hub for policy work and Fordham as a tight community. She quickly got involved with several organizations on campus, including the school’s Suspension Representation Project, which trains law students to represent public school students in suspension hearings.
“I felt like it combined these interests that I had in education and working with students but also … criminal justice and school discipline,” she says.
At the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), she’s focusing on educational injustices—specifically book bans and legislative attempts to curtail historically accurate teachings. “So many amazing advocates have worked at LDF,” she says, “and I knew I wanted to be a part of its storied legacy fighting for racial justice and equality.”
