Asja Towns, L’25, has been awarded a Skadden Fellowship. Established in 1988, the highly competitive program provides two-year fellowships to recent law graduates to pursue the practice of public interest law on a full-time basis, particularly improving the legal services for the poor and encouraging economic independence. The 2025 class includes 28 fellows from 18 law schools across the United States.

Ms. Towns, a Toll Public Interest Scholar, will work with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) in Washington, D.C. Her project aims to engage in multidisciplinary advocacy, combining policy, public education, litigation, communications, and organizing, to safeguard and lawfully expand targeted programs so that low-income students of color can access higher education and employment opportunities.

“Low-income students of color often experience systemic inequities in K-12 education and beyond that, through no fault of their own, persist and hinder their opportunities at every stage of their academic and professional journeys,” she said. “I aim to bridge this gap by defending programs that dismantle barriers and create pathways to connect these talented students with the opportunities they need.”

Ms. Towns’ project, housed in LDF’s Equal Protection Initiative, addresses the urgent challenges posed by the chronic underfunding of public school districts, the resulting generations of students deprived of pathways to higher education and employment, and recent legal and policy assaults on programs designed to support these students. Underfunded public schools and disinvested communities create significant barriers for low-income students of color.