Heckler & Frabizzio is proud to present the winner of the annual Diversity Scholarship, Chelsea Stone! The Firm was very pleased with our applicant pool for the 2022 scholarship, which included many impressive individuals. The diversity committee worked diligently to review all applications using a standardized rubric and interviewed the top three applicants. Chelsea impressed the committee with her commitment to diversity, the legal community, and her hard work. Please see a personal statement from our winner, Chelsea Stone, below.

My name is Chelsea Stone, and I wear many hats. I am a 3L law student at Delaware Law School. I am a Saint Joseph’s University alumna. I am a first-generation law student. I am a Filipina-African American born and raised in Philadelphia. When I become an attorney, I will have another hat — an outlier.

Only 5% of the attorneys in the United States are Black, and only 2% are Asian. For this reason, advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the legal profession, workplace, and community is critical.

As a law student, I have committed a part of my law school journey to advocating for the marginalized, and actively playing a role in promoting DEI on and off campus. I am the Vice President of the Asian Law Student Association, Secretary of the Women’s Law Caucus, Secretary of the Food and Drug Law Association, and Member of my school’s DEI Student Council.

Outside of school, I volunteer with Sanctuary Farms Philadelphia, which addresses systematic health inequities resulting from systematic racial and economic oppression by cultivating abandoned areas in North Philadelphia into spaces that provide free produce to the community. In addition, I was invited to speak with students in Saint Joseph’s University’s Law Exploration Advancing Diversity Program, where I provided guidance, and advice and answered questions students had regarding law school and its admissions process. Lastly, in the Fall, I will be providing representation to low-income veterans through my school’s Veteran’s Law Clinic.

Unfortunately, there have been times in my law school career that I missed out on pursuing other opportunities due to financial constraints, such as picking a more financially sensible option over an option that more suitably matched my career goals. The Heckler and Fabrizio scholarship will substantially alleviate financial constraints and will allow me to continue to actively promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal field and other communities.