2015 Financial Hardship Scholarship Winner Places Self Sacrifice Over Personal Gain

The Financial Hardship Scholarship is one of the most exciting annual events for the legal professionals at Bond & Botes, because it promotes both future legal professionals and the financial responsibility that the firm stands for. Additionally, the average cost of law school runs approximately $150,000, with the most public law schools charging around $84,600 total and private colleges charging around $122,000. That's why we want to provide the assistance that proven student achievers need to further their career. That’s why the firm is excited to announce the winner of the 2015 Bond & Botes Financial Hardship Scholarship, Shannon Huberty, who exemplifies all of the outstanding qualities that this scholarship fund stands for.

As one of three college-age siblings, Huberty knew that much of the financial responsibility of achieving her educational dreams would fall squarely on her own shoulders. However, her perseverance and determination allowed her to overcome this challenge and peruse her high educational achievements. To fund her undergraduate degree, Huberty proved that she has the ability to juggle competing responsibilities while still achieving high academic success. She worked three part-time jobs along with obtaining student loans to accomplish the first step in her dream of becoming a lawyer.

Huberty says that her desire to enter the legal profession stems from the financial struggles of her family growing up as well as her own struggles to afford higher education. Additionally, the plight of poverty, helplessness, intolerance and oppression that she witnessed in her fellow residents of Milwaukee created a desire deep within her to make a difference.

However, Huberty isn’t waiting on her law degree before she starts making a difference in the lives of those around her. She has been an active community service participant for many years. In fact, her list of volunteer accomplishments is almost as long as her academic ones. Some of notable service projects that Huberty has contributed to include volunteering at a homeless shelter for runaway youth and at a central city parish that provides meals to the area homeless. She has also coached youth baseball in economically depressed areas where many of the players were from chaotic, unstable family environments. Huberty’s positive economic and societal impact even extends to South Africa where she taught English, installed clean water filtration systems for economically deprived families and facilitated a clothing drive for those living in poverty-stricken areas.

With the assistance of the Bond & Botes Financial Hardship Scholarship, Huberty can now focus her efforts solely on the rigors of her law studies. Huberty will utilize the scholarship award to begin her law studies at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, Wisconsin, from which she obtained her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Legal Studies. Her undergraduate achievement of graduating with honors and a double major is impressive given her substantial time commitment to paying for her education. Even more impressive, she accomplished all of these feats an entire semester earlier than scheduled.

Huberty’s plans following law school graduation show that she plans to continue giving back to the economically and socially oppressed communities that  she has already been serving so diligently. Her goal is to open her own Neighborhood Law Clinic in the downtown region of Milwaukee, her home town.

Bond & Botes is proud to reward Shannon Huberty for her personal sacrifice, tenacity and dedication to serving others who are less fortunate by awarding her this scholarship. It is this same tenacity that is exemplified by former recipients of the Scholarship, such as Niya McCray, the 2014 winner. The firm hopes that this financial assistance will allow Huberty to obtain her Juris Doctor unburdened  by financial restraints,  thus freeing her to continue her public service outreach along with her promising legal career.