The NLA 2009 Scholarship Fund Committee established a scholarship fund to serve the legal needs of its members and the broader Nigerian legal community and to advance legal education and professional development in the practice of law. The Scholarship Committee concluded that a need based accommodation or book scholarship should be awarded to a deserving Nigerian or Nigerian-American law student in a U.S accredited law school. The candidates could be enrolled in either a Juris Doctorate or Master of laws program.

 

The Scholarship committee selected Mr. Opeoluwa Sotonwa, Esq. as the 2009 recipient of the NLA Accommodation Award and beneficiary of NLA Scholarship Fund. In early 2009, Mr. Sotonwa, a LLM candidate at the Howard University School of Law. He is a person with a hearing disability and was experiencing financial hardship when he reached out to the chair of the NLA Scholarship Fund Committee, to apply for a grant on a needs basis. After careful deliberation, the committee determined that Mr. Sotonwa was a deserving candidate and recommended that the NLA Award him a scholarship. The Scholarship Committee believed that Mr. Sotonwa’s story exemplified what the NLA is deeply committed to – the advancement of legal education and the desire to serve the needs of the members of the Nigerian legal community.

 

Shortly after Mr. Sotonwa received his grant, he wrote NLA’ Executive Board to express his gratitude, informing the Board that he graduated on May 9, 2009, cum laude with a 89.50 overall GPA. He went on to explain that he got distinctions in all his spring semester classes – the same period in which the NLA granted him the Accommodation Award – and he concluded; “To this end, I’m dedicating this success to the NLA. The NLA has made a positive impact on me, and has given me the impetus to strive for the best and achieve the best”.

 

The NLA believes that a testimonial such as Mr. Sotonwa’s is the reason why the 2009 NLA Scholarship Fund was created and hopes to support more of such causes in the future.