BEYOND THE BOOKS: WORKING TOGETHER TO SUPPORT AND SERVE

May 2023 — Throughout their 1L year, despite the demands of classes, law book readings, and writing assignments, students from the Class of 2025 joined together in many ways to support and serve individuals and organizations in the Carlisle community and beyond. Here are just some of the ways they practiced greatness:

Several students, including 1L Caitlin Godsey, addressed food insecurity through their volunteer efforts at Project Share of Carlisle. The Food Pantry seeks to “provide access to nutritious food, programs, and a support network that promotes self-sufficiency, fosters dignity, and instills hope.” Across town, 1L students Anna Cook, KC Read-Fisher, and Jamesha Caldwell, volunteered at the Carlisle CARES Emergency Shelter to provide breakfast to residents.

2025 studentsA group of 1L students also participated in Project Hope — a holiday card writing initiative hosted by Professor Mae Quinn. Students including Alexis Faulkner, Jamesha Caldwell, and Kergina Singleton sent encouraging messages to incarcerated neighbors at the Cumberland County Prison.

Group photoVisiting Professor Cynthia Armijo and 1Ls Samantha DiPasquale, Payton Pittman, and KC Read-Fisher, also joined the gathering.

The Project Hope event was intended to help put into action commitments and concerns shared during the Criminal Legal System, Youth and Families session of the Race and Equal Protection of Law Course (Criminal Legal System REPL Session). As a further initiative stemming from the Criminal Legal System REPL session, several students met at Carlisle Hope Station — a community-based resource center for youth and families — to further explore the problem of racial disparities in drug arrests and prosecutions in Cumberland County.

Safronia PerryAlong with Professor Quinn and Hope Station’s Executive Director Safronia Perry (pictured right), the students dug more deeply into data presented during the Criminal Legal System REPL session. In addition, from Director Perry — who is also a Carlisle Borough Council Member — the students learned about the history of Carlisle’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana. Participating students, including Nate White and Devon Lacy, helped brainstorm next steps for gathering more information about policing and prosecution practices in the area, as well plans to work with others in the community to stem the tide of the over-representation of Black youth and adults in the local criminal legal system.


Professor Mae C. Quinn brings over 25 years of experience to Penn State Dickinson Law including as a public defender, civil rights advocate, and leader in the legal academy. She has successfully taught across the entire law school curriculum, including legal writing, doctrinal, seminar, field placement/practicum, trial advocacy, and clinical legal education courses. She and her students have also worked together to file amicus briefs with the United States Supreme Court and state high courts in several important criminal and youth justice matters. Her scholarship, cited widely by courts, advocates and academics alike, has been published in leading journals including the Boston College Law Review, Iowa Law Review, SMU Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Harvard Journal of Gender and Law, and New York University Review of Law and Social Change.