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Jolie Altman

1x

Finalist

1x

Winner

General information

Hobbies & Interests

  • Advocacy And Activism
  • Animals
  • Art
  • Band
  • Board Games And Puzzles
  • Law
  • Public Policy
  • Community Service And Volunteering

Reading

  • Adult Fiction
  • Women's Fiction
  • True Story
  • Thriller
  • Fantasy
  • Historical
  • Horror
  • Mystery
  • Psychology

I read books multiple times a week.

Bio

I am a rising 3L at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. I came to Oregon from Colorado to pursue environmental law with a focus on natural resource use and allocation. I am passionate about the human-oriented side of environmental advocacy, especially protecting and enhancing public health and providing quality access to safe and clean environments for all people. Through this pursuit, I also believe that all communities should have access to natural resources like water and clean, safe food, and that such resources should be protected for future generations. I would like to pursue this field while advocating in the fight for environmental justice and preservation of our nation’s land and resources. I am a first-generation law student who comes out of a lower income family. I do not have the same connections that a lot of my colleagues do and had to enter into this field on my own. I worked all through my undergrad and have held down jobs through law school in order to put myself through school. I am fully self-funded and do not have outside support. Scholarships like these help remove some of the barriers I face in completing my education and representing vulnerable communities. I want to get my law degree to be a voice of change for communities that have often been removed from the decision-making process, despite facing the most impacts. With my focus on public advocacy and environmental justice, I hope to use my background to help further the access to justice for others like me, who may not have the same resources and opportunities.

Education

Lewis & Clark College

Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)

2024 – 2027

Majors:
  • Legal Professions and Studies, Other
  • Public Administration
  • Public Policy Analysis
  • Environmental/Natural Resources Management and Policy
  • Law
GPA3.4 GPA

University of Denver

Bachelor's degree program

2019 – 2023

Majors:
  • Psychology, General
  • Criminology
  • Legal Professions and Studies, Other
  • Sociology
GPA3.8 GPA

Castle View High School

High School

2016 – 2019

GPA3.9 GPA

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
Medical school interest:
No

Career

  • Judicial Clerk

    Law Practice · Federal Magistrate Judge Russo; United States District Court for the District of Oregon

    Jan 2026 – Jan 2026

  • Legal Clerk

    Environmental Services · South Coast Air Quality Management District - LA

    Jan 2026 – Present

  • Courtroom Assistant

    Legal Services · Aurora Municipal Court

    Jan 2022 – Jan 2024

  • Paralegal

    Legal Services · Ross-Shannon & Proctor, P.C.

    Jan 2023 – Jan 2025

  • Legal Research Assistant

    Public Policy · Water Climate Trust

    Jan 2025 – Jan 2025

  • Legal Clerk

    Legal Services · Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, LLC

    Jan 2025 – Jan 2025

  • Legal Clerk

    Law Practice · Global Law Alliance/International Animal and Environmental Legal Clinic

    Jan 2025 – Present

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Law Practice
Work experience:
3 years
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Advocacy
  • Politics
  • Volunteering
Bick First Generation Scholarship
Being a first-generation student means learning to navigate spaces that were not built with people like me in mind. It means pursuing opportunities without having a roadmap, relying on determination, resourcefulness, and faith in myself when there was no one in my immediate family who could explain the process. As a first-generation law student, I have often felt that I had to work twice as hard to gain access to the same opportunities that others seemed to inherit through experience, connections, or family guidance. Throughout my educational journey, I have faced challenges that extended beyond academics. I had to learn how to advocate for myself, seek out mentors, and figure out systems that many of my peers already understood. Law is a field based upon making connections and who you know. Advisors and other attorneys are constantly preaching the power of networking or leveraging your connections for future opportunities. When others could focus on building connections, I had to work an extra shift to be able to afford to attend the conference. I am fully self-funded and only have access to opportunities if I make it happen for myself. Every application, internship, networking event, and professional opportunity required me to navigate unfamiliar territory. Meeting new people, I always felt like I was an imposter or didn't belong because I didn't have the same experience or knowledge as my peers. My own experiences showed me that access to information can change the course of a person’s life. Many of the barriers I faced were not due to a lack of ability, but a lack of knowledge and guidance. I was starting fresh in an industry that relies upon inside knowledge and connections. Now, I am committed to sharing what I have learned with students who are coming after me, especially those who are also first-generation students. Whether through mentorship, community involvement, or simply making myself available to answer questions I once had, I want to help create pathways that are easier to navigate for others than they were for me. I use my own experiences to help lift those up after me who come from similar backgrounds. I may not have had connections when I started, but I am now happy to be that bridge for other students feeling overwhelmed by the exclusive legal community. My dream is to use my legal education to advocate for individuals and communities that are often overlooked and underserved. I want to be an attorney who helps empower people by giving them access to information, resources, and opportunities. Equitable access is important to achieving justice for all. This scholarship would help me continue pursuing that vision by easing the financial burden of law school and allowing me to focus more fully on my education, professional development, and service to others. More importantly, it would be an investment in someone who is committed to paying opportunities forward. Every opportunity I receive creates a greater ability for me to help someone else access theirs.
Michael Rudometkin Memorial Scholarship
Having firsthand experience with the foster system and seeing how the legal team did not have the best interest of the kids at risk in mind, I knew I wanted to be a change to that. I came to law school because I saw the flaws in the legal system and how people who were inside of it got treated. I knew I wanted to be a legal professional whom people in need and in vulnerable situations could trust. In unstable and traumatic situations, getting legal professionals involved can often raise tensions and stress. I want to be a part of changing the legal landscape and providing the needed assistance, while being aware of the sensitivities of each individual’s situation. Now, my law school education is focused on public interest environmental law, specifically with a focus on environmental justice. I am passionate about the human-oriented side of environmental advocacy, especially protecting and enhancing public health and providing quality access to safe and clean environments for all people. Through this pursuit, I also believe that all communities should have access to natural resources like water and clean, safe food, and that such resources should be protected for future generations. I would like to pursue this field while advocating in the fight for environmental justice and understanding how changes in the Earth’s environment affect the Nation’s economic, social, and environmental needs. I navigate my legal education through the lens of being a strong advocate for vulnerable communities, which I learned from my experience with the foster system. Because of my focus on the public interest side of law, representing and working with the people of the communities surrounding me is an important foundation of the work I want to do. I feel like non-profit work is the epitome of public interest work because the focus is on the public. While working at Aurora Municipal Courthouse, I was able to see the necessary work of Public Defenders in providing legal services in combating the injustices of systematic poverty, incarceration, and racism. I was also able to interact with all parties in a courtroom, seeing how each professional had a role to play in the outcome of each case. Through my work with the courthouse, I helped to maintain the cases, provide all necessary hearing information to all parties, and provide resources to Pro Se parties. This experience and interaction with all different kinds of parties moving through the legal system still drives my intentions behind my law degree today. Currently, I spend a lot of my Wednesday nights volunteering pro bono at Saint Andrews Legal Clinic in Portland, Oregon. A big component of this work is making legal resources more accessible and removing barriers that community members may face. It is important to me to continue to build up these communities that I came from and have direct experience with. Pursuing nonprofit work has allowed me to work in water access, researching instream flow rights in Oregon, work in air pollution management in Los Angeles, and help travelers be mindful and respectful visitors in Iceland. I have had the pleasure of being a part of the legal system with a focus on making justice more accessible for all. All of this has given me the unique experience of working directly with the people I strive to be an advocate for. As I continue to pursue my legal education and ultimately get licensed to practice law, my focus remains on the people and being the best advocate I can for the communities being impacted the most.
TRAM Themis Scholarship
Growing up in a Colorado valley, I witnessed how water insecurity could affect entire communities, including those who relied on water for agricultural or subsistence purposes. When it was a drier year, we were also at a higher risk of facing devastating fires across the state, taking out people's homes and communities. With my law degree, I intend to practice public interest environmental law, focusing on the inequitable distribution and use of natural resources. Through this pursuit, my goal is to make access to necessary elements like water and land more achievable for all people, while recognizing how the current systems of development are built upon the most at-risk communities to further economic gains over human rights. My focus is on the people side of environmental law, and I intend to use my law degree to further the pursuit of environmental justice, representing communities that are impacted the most by ongoing environmental harms. These communities are typically underserved but overburdened and bear the brunt of the effects of projects like mineral mining, oil drilling, energy production, and more. By focusing on the needs of these communities while pursuing equitable environmental law and resource use, I believe that we can accomplish better policies and a safer world for everyone. But in order to do so, the dangers and harms Environmental Justice communities face need to be addressed and fully represented. It has always been my intention to work directly with the communities I intend to represent and create a trust-based relationship. While getting my law degree, I have also been intentional with volunteering in my community and providing pro bono services at a family law legal clinic. Having firsthand experience with the foster system and seeing how the legal team did not have the best interest of the kids at risk in mind, I knew I wanted to be a change to that. Originally, I came to law school because I saw the flaws in the legal system and how people inside of it were treated. I knew I wanted to be a legal professional whom people in need and in vulnerable situations could trust. In unstable and traumatic situations, getting legal professionals involved can often raise tensions and stress. I want to be a part of changing the legal landscape and providing the needed assistance, while being aware of the sensitivities of each individual’s situation. This sentiment translates into my environmental work and future goals. I want to address the needs and concerns of vulnerable Environmental Justice communitites, because I once also experienced what it looks like when profits are placed over direct impacts to the people and their land.
Future Nonprofit Leaders Award
Having firsthand experience with the foster system and seeing how the legal team did not have the best interest of the kids at risk in mind, I knew I wanted to be a change to that. I came to law school because I saw the flaw in the legal system and how people who were inside of it got treated. I knew I wanted to be a legal professional that people in need and in vulnerable situations could trust. In unstable and traumatic situations, getting legal professionals involved can often raise the tensions and stress. I want to be a part of changing the legal landscape and providing the needed assistance, while being aware of the sensitivities of each individual’s situation. Now, my law school education is focused on public interest environmental law, specifically with a focus on environmental justice. I am passionate about the human-oriented side of environmental advocacy, especially protecting and enhancing public health and providing quality access to safe and clean environments for all people. Through this pursuit, I also believe that all communities should have access to natural resources like water and clean, safe food, and that such resources should be protected for future generations. I would like to pursue this field while advocating in the fight for environmental justice and understanding how changes in the Earth’s environment affect the Nation’s economic, social, and environmental needs. I navigate my legal education through the lens of being a strong advocate for vulnerable communities, which I learned from my experience with the foster system. Because of my focus on the public interest side of law, representing and working with the people of the communities surrounding me is an important foundation of the work I want to do. I feel like non-profit work is the epitome of public interest work because the focus is on the public. One of the most significant benefits of working for a nonprofit is the opportunity to directly impact people's lives and communities. Nonprofits focus on social, environmental, and humanitarian causes, allowing employees to contribute to meaningful missions. Pursuing nonprofit work has allowed me to work in water access, researching instream flow rights in Oregon, work in air pollution management in Los Angeles, and help travelers be mindful and respectful visitors in Iceland. I also have had the pleasure of working in two court houses, being a part of the legal system with a focus on making justice more accessible for all. Non profit and government work has been the most fulfilling of my work and has given me the unique experience of working directly with the people I strive to be an advocate for. As I continue to pursue my legal education, and ultimately get licensed to practice law, my focus remains on the people and being the best advocate I can for the communities being impacted the most.
Jack Saunders Memorial Scholarship
In the past 6 months, I had to teach myself how to walk again. The summer in between my 1L and 2L years of law school, I underwent a double knee surgery: a meniscus repair and a MPFL reconstruction. My body had given up on me, and I needed to fix it now. Worried about not having the time to fully rest and recover if I did the surgery just a few years later as a licensed attorney, I agreed to the procedure for the 1L summer instead. At the age of 23, I felt like a toddler. I couldn't drive. I couldn't walk, let alone run or hike. I couldn't navigate stairs, meaning I was left in my apartment for 3 weeks. I was on a feeding schedule so that my medications could be taken at the proper times. Overnight, I lost all of my autonomy and could do nothing for myself. For someone that had spent the weeks leading up to surgery in Iceland, hiking waterfalls in Oregon, and weightlifting in the gym, this was devastating. Not only did I lose my independence, but I also felt like I lost all the activities I enjoyed that made me feel like me. I couldn't go to game night. I couldn't go swimming. I couldn't meet up for drinks. I felt trapped. I felt alone. I moved to Oregon for law school despite having no prior relationships, connections, or family in Oregon. I live alone, besides my cat who is certainly not big enough to help me with physical therapy. This meant that when I found out about the needed procedure, I anticipated doing it alone. I had friends from school, but helping someone recover from a big medical procedure within a year of meeting seemed like a big ask. However, I was so wrong. Some of these classmates are the one that got me home from the hospital and up to my non-ADA compliant apartment. Others set up meal delivery. Others still would bring game night to me in between my medication schedule. Despite not having any blood family in Oregon, these people showed me something much stronger: found family. Law school sent me to people who cared and knew how to show up. People who have asked me to their weddings, despite only knowing each other for a few months at the time. Without law school, I would not have been able to recover from such a major procedure.
Future Green Leaders Scholarship
At its core, sustainability as a societal priority is about ensuring that our actions today don’t compromise the well-being of future generations. It’s a commitment to living within the means of our planet, using resources wisely, and minimizing harm to the environment. It's a commitment that in order to be effective, needs to be adopted individually and collectively across local, national, and international boundaries. Sustainability needs to be a priority in all fields, even if a position doesn't fall inherently within an environmentally related structure. I believe that we collectively often fall into a "not my problem, someone else will handle it" mindset. I have heard that sustainability is "something for those crazy hippies to think about" or that "one person's actions are not going to change the trajectory of environmental damages." However, all of our systems are connected; non-sustainable resource extraction in the United States then adds to the cumulative impacts of climate change worldwide. Consumerism thrives in one country because it is being fueled by production and labor in another country. Sustainability is necessary in all fields for the continued growth and success across national borders, and therefore, requires a collective effort. As a future environmental lawyer, my focus is not just on the sustainability of future resource use, but also on the impacts that people, specifically communities that are already overburdened and underserved, are currently facing. Specifically, my interest is in how exploitative resource use and extraction, coupled with disproportionate benefit sharing, is unsustainable environmentally and socially. Because the global community has not accepted sustainability as a priority, we have seen rapid degradation of our planet, exploitation of resources, and rising human rights violations. My goal as a lawyer is to make these harms more public while supporting the communities who are facing the brunt of environmental harms and damages. Policy, law, and social sciences need to incorporate sustainability considerations to better understand the distribution of impacts. To best represent the people, I need to understand how current environmental processes affect them and the future implications of continued unsustainable use of land and resources. Environmental law, to me, is not just about protection of animals or the Earth, although important. Sustainability is a commitment to the future generations and inherently includes a social component to ensure that people can continue to live with access to food and water. I intend to focus on the human component embedded within sustainability for future and present generations. We are all in this together and share this Earth.
JobTest Career Coach Scholarship for Law Students
Winner
I came to Oregon to pursue environmental law with a focus on natural resource use and allocation. I am passionate about the human-oriented side of environmental advocacy, especially protecting and enhancing public health and providing quality access to safe and clean environments for all people. Through this pursuit, I also believe that all communities should have access to natural resources like water and clean, safe food, and that such resources should be protected for future generations. I would like to pursue this field while advocating in the fight for environmental justice and preservation of our nation’s land and resources. While at Lewis & Clark, I have been a member of the Northwestern Environmental Defense Council (NEDC) and Students for International Environmental Law (SIEL), assisting in research of local, national, and international environmental concerns and their effects on the resident populations. I am now in leadership for both organizations, assisting 1Ls with becoming involved with environmental law, including leading the clean water student group of NEDC. Through these opportunities, I have been able to write public comments and create public comment guides that put the legal concerns into lay terms so the public can understand what is happening in their own neighborhoods. Focusing on the public involvement and access to justice within my own communities is a big part of why I came to law school. Having firsthand experience with the foster system and seeing how the legal team did not have the best interest of the kids at risk in mind, I knew I wanted to be a change to that. I came to law school because I saw the flaw in the legal system and how people who were inside of it got treated. I knew I wanted to be a legal professional that people in need and in vulnerable situations could trust. In unstable and traumatic situations, getting legal professionals involved can often raise the tensions and stress. I want to be a part of changing the legal landscape and providing the needed assistance, while being aware of the sensitivities of each individual’s situation. I am interested in resource use and allocation and environmental harms internationally, as well as locally. This year, in my 2L year, I am participating in the International Animal and Environmental Legal Clinic on Lewis and Clark’s campus. This has given me a fantastic opportunity to see how policy does not only have local implications, but nationally and internationally. I also have been able to further explore how people and non-human species are impacted globally by environmental issues and environmental crimes. Environmental impacts are not restricted to only local communities but have effects that carry, often disproportionately impacting minority and lower income communities that have been systemically removed from policy and access to justice. I hope to become involved in resource conservation, land use and allocation, and environmental policy, being a part of our natural world so that it may continue to exist for generations to come.
Priscilla Shireen Luke Scholarship
Having firsthand experience with the foster system and seeing how the legal team did not have the best interest of the kids at risk in mind, I knew I wanted to be a change to that. I came to law school because I saw the flaw in the legal system and how people who were inside of it got treated. I knew I wanted to be a legal professional that people in need and in vulnerable situations could trust. In unstable and traumatic situations, getting legal professionals involved can often raise the tensions and stress. I want to be a part of changing the legal landscape and providing the needed assistance, while being aware of the sensitivities of each individual’s situation. While working at Aurora Municipal Courthouse, I was able to see the necessary work of Public Defenders in providing legal services in combating the injustices of systematic poverty, incarceration, and racism. I was also able to interact with all parties in a courtroom, seeing how each professional had a role to play in the outcome of each case. Through my work with the courthouse, I helped to maintain the cases, provide all necessary hearing information to all parties, and provide resources to Pro Se parties. This experience and interaction with all different kinds of parties moving through the legal system drives my intentions behind my law degree and is something I plan to carry through my practice. Currently, I spend a lot of my Wednesday nights volunteering pro bono at Saint Andrews Legal Clinic in Portland, Oregon. I am halfway through my law school education and intend to practice in public interest law once I get my J.D. A big component of this work is making legal resources more accessible and removing the barriers that community members may face. Family law was a big factor in me coming to law school in the first place and it is important to me to continue to build up these communities that I came from and have direct experience with. I am new to Portland, Oregon and am trying to get involved in the local communities of my new home to build connections but also to recognize the problems that individuals around me may face. Empathy is an essential skill in lawyering and by giving back to my community I hope to remove barriers to legal resources and make it more accessible to have voices heard when they are asking for help.
Irving S. Berman Scholarship
I came to Oregon to pursue environmental law with a focus on natural resource use and allocation. I am passionate about the human-oriented side of environmental advocacy, especially protecting and enhancing public health and providing quality access to safe and clean environments for all people. Through this pursuit, I also believe that all communities should have access to natural resources like water and clean, safe food, and that such resources should be protected for future generations. I would like to pursue this field while advocating in the fight for environmental justice and preservation of our nation’s land and resources. Now more than ever, this fight is essential to guarantee a healthy environment for not only the current generations, but for future generations. While at Lewis & Clark, I have been a member of the Northwestern Environmental Defense Council (NEDC) and Students for International Environmental Law (SIEL), assisting in research of local, national, and international environmental concerns and their effects on the resident populations. I am now in leadership for both organizations, assisting 1Ls with becoming involved with environmental law, including leading the clean water student group of NEDC. Through these opportunities, I have been able to write public comments and create public comment guides that put the legal concerns into lay terms so the public can understand what is happening in their own neighborhoods. It is important to me that environmental knowledge is accessible to communities that are being directly impacted. I am also interested in how policy and regulations are necessary to make clean energy accessible and more widely used. These experiences have given me the necessary research tools to be able to provide the legislative analysis of local, national, and international policies. I am interested in resource use and allocation and environmental harms internationally, as well as locally. This year, in my 2L year, I am participating in the International Animal and Environmental Legal Clinic on Lewis and Clark’s campus. This has given me a fantastic opportunity to see how policy does not only have local implications, but nationally and internationally. I also have been able to further explore how people and non-human species are impacted globally by environmental issues and environmental crimes. I have continued to explore the international impact of environmental harms through research in Iceland. In Iceland, my research was focused on how the increasing tourism impacts the local ecology, environment, and culture. I then worked with my research team to develop and publish a tourism guide accessible to encourage sustainable and respectful travel. The intent behind this was to make environmental knowledge more common while recognizing the impacts that tourism may have on Iceland.
Jolie Altman Student Profile | Bold.org