JIL@GW Awarded 2024 Learning Through Action Award
By: KELLI L. ROSS
At this year’s GW Day of Excellence, JIL@GW was awarded the 2024 Learning Through Action Award, which recognizes student organizations and university programs that excel in the use of experiential education. Each year, this award is given to one student organization or university program.
JIL@GW was nominated by Alesha Garvin, Director of Strategic Initiatives & Administration at The George Washington University Law School.
At JIL@GW, students work with criminal legal system practitioners, data scientists, researchers, and human-centered design specialists to tackle the justice system’s most pressing and complex problems. Students examine real-world criminal justice data and explore the challenges confronting justice systems around the United States, while helping communities fix inequitable justice system outcomes.
JIL’s 3-credit seminar course at GW Law is an opportunity for students to learn through action. Students think critically about the criminal legal system, while simultaneously helping communities solve real-world justice problems. The syllabus incorporates disciplines not typically taught in law school, such as systems-thinking, project management, statistics, storytelling, teambuilding, and human-centered design. The semester’s capstone is a project in support of one of JIL’s partner jurisdictions. Students have worked on projects to improve access to mental health services, to identify alternatives to incarceration, and to combat excessive fines and fees.
“Our true legacy is to equip an army of change agents who are passionate, who understand that law is a tool for justice, and are prepared to use it. That’s what JIL is doing, and it gives me great hope for the future,” said Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD, PhD, Dean of The George Washington University Law School.
Since its inception in 2020, JIL@GW has trained over 100 law students through the experiential class and through project-driven independent research. JIL@GW seeks extensive feedback from students who participate in the program, to help improve the student experience. Here is what former participants are saying:
“I learned and developed practical skills and I know I will be a better lawyer (and human being) after taking this class.”
“It’s so unique because our projects are solving real problems in real jurisdictions.”
“This is an excellent and unique project unlike anything else at GW. It was an extremely fulfilling experience and reminded me of why I went to law school.”
“This course has been one of the highlights of my law school career. It was an extremely unique opportunity for law students to collaborate with actual working professionals across the country to create real and lasting change.”
JIL@GW has supported seven different jurisdictions across the United States, including Charleston, SC; Memphis, TN; Cincinnati, OH; St. Paul, MN; and multiple counties in Georgia. It is also participating in the first-of-its-kind randomized control trial (RCT) of the new screening process that JIL helped design. These projects have led to reductions in unnecessary incarceration and other inequitable outcomes.
Additionally, each year, JIL@GW hosts workshops and expert panel discussions to grapple with the most pressing justice issues of our time. Topics have included racial disparities in incarceration, forming authentic community partnerships, and police accountability.
“Students learn how systems really work, and how to tackle really big problems as part of an interdisciplinary team,” said GW Law Professor Donald Braman. “It’s the kind of transformative, real-world work that makes everyone involved want to do their very best. It’s also a tangible-results model of learning that aligns with GW Law’s mission and commitment to equity. This is a uniquely GW course – it isn’t happening anywhere else – and I feel very proud and lucky to be part of it.”
