"As a nationally recognized expert in police and sentencing reform, St. John's University Law School Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum might not seem like an obvious fit for a program known as a hub for bankruptcy, real estate and criminal prosecution. The dean would disagree. What she saw in the private Catholic university tucked away in a green patch of Eastern Queens was its bedrock commitment to the Vincentian mission of public service."
"I very intentionally sought out a school with a commitment to social justice and community work, a school that had a healthy population of first-generation students and a school that was in a diverse area such that the kind of pipeline to the school would bring students from lots of backgrounds, Jefferson Exum told amNY Law, because then I knew that the work that I was doing to sort of get the school to its next level."
"The multiculturalism of the school's Queens location appeared to Jefferson Exum as a great opportunity. Hillcrest, its neighborhood, sits just north of the majority-Black Jamaica neighborhood, south of the predominantly Asian Flushing and east of the South Asian and Latino melting pot of Jackson Heights and Corona. A majority of the students come from the local area, with many of them commuting to the campus while living at home."
Jelani Jefferson Exum is a nationally recognized expert in police and sentencing reform and serves as dean of St. John's University Law School. She joined the school from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2024. The law school has a strong Vincentian mission of public service and a diverse, primarily local student body including many first-generation students. The Hillcrest campus sits amid majority-Black, Asian, South Asian and Latino neighborhoods. Fundraising during the centennial raised a record amount intended to expand a public service law center and increase scholarships for first-generation and local students.
Read at www.amny.com
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