|
Kristi Whitaker-Trinks
January 2010
The VLP is pleased
to announce
that Kristi
Whitaker-Trinks has
been selected as
our Outstanding
Law Student
Volunteer for the
month of January.
As a 1L,
Kristi has
volunteered in the
VLP’s Service
Center Clinic at
the Pima Superior
Court. Kristi
has gone above and
beyond
what is expected
from a
volunteer – she is
always willing
to come in on
short notice and
will stay late to
make sure the
client gets the
help he or she
needs. She has a
wonderful,
positive attitude
and an energizing
personality that
helps her establish a great rapport with clients. The VLP is very
lucky to count
Kristi among its volunteers.
Kristi is a veteran
volunteer having volunteered with the Peace Corps, Catholic
Social Services, Planned
Parenthood, Safe Space Domestic Violence Shelter,
and with numerous
literacy and ESL agencies.
When
asked why she chose to
volunteer with VLP, she
replied “VLP offered a meaningful, hands-on opportunity
to apply the ideas from
my law classes. Since I worked the 8 years prior to law
school, I particularly
enjoyed the chance to assist others with making informed
decisions regarding
their future and interacting with the community.” Despite
being a full-time,
first year law student, Kristi managed to find time to volunteer
not
only with VLP but also in the
Florence Immigrant and Refugee
Rights
Project and
Derechos Humanos.
As a volunteer, Kristi has seen the importance of providing pro
bono legal
services to the community. “I
learned the true value of giving clients an
opportunity to
speak.” She added “Every client appreciated being heard, and
by listening to
their stories additional issues were uncovered that needed to
be resolved.”
Kristi’s volunteer experiences have also had an effect on her
goals for the
future once she is a practicing attorney. “I have been impressed
by the time and
commitment local attorneys have dedicated to the community,
and I look forward
to continuing this tradition.”
Kristi hails from Forks,
Washington but has spent most of her life in the Triangle
area of North Carolina. She is a cum laude graduate from North
Carolina State
University with a degree
in business management. In law school,
Kristi has
continued to grow with
the help of her professors. She says that Professor
Korn has been her
favorite law school professor stating “she made a real effort
to support our
transition to law school and answer first-year law student
questions.” We
asked Kristi to describe her dream job for us and she replied
“having worked
with organizations from IBM to the Peace Corps, my dream
job needs a
mission that I can believe in, a supportive team environment and
some fun.”
Despite Kristi’s
commitments she manages to put time aside for traveling,
camping, and
gardening. She does admit to a weakness for Project
Runway
describing it as
her “favorite mindless entertainment during study breaks.”
Though she has
only been in Tucson for a short time, she’s finding our
proximity to
Mexico to be big bonus. She has found her favorite vacation
spot in a little,
fishing village north of Puerto Vallarta named Sayulita,
Mexico – a place
Kristi describes as “beautiful and laid back.” Kristi is
also developing a
taste for authentic Mexican food and counts El Guero
Canelo and
El Rio Café among her favorite Tucson restaurants.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Past Outstanding Volunteer
Student Awards |
