Eleanor Kittilstad, a Fall 2017 PILI Intern Alum, was awarded a 2018 Skadden Fellowship. The Skadden Fellowship Foundation provides two-year fellowships to talented young lawyers to pursue the practice of public interest law on a full-time basis.
Eleanor will be working at Equip for Equality, where she did her PILI Internship, to provide advocacy and direct representation to elementary school children with disabilities who have been referred to police and acute mental health crisis programs by their schools for behaviors that should be addressed at school.
“They are afraid or don’t feel safe at school,” said Eleanor, who explains that the experience of being arrested or hospitalized can be extremely traumatizing for these students.
“The goal is to prevent those calls and instead, make sure students are getting the behavioral, academic and social support to be successful in school,” she said.
Eleanor went through the Skadden Application process while she was doing her PILI Internship. “It was helpful to be doing this hands-on work and be able to talk about it with my supervisor,” she said. She could see how important this work was and how it could fit into her overall goals.
“I have always been interested in school special education and school discipline,” said Eleanor. “It’s what brought me to law school to begin with.”
Congratulations to Eleanor and to all the Skadden Fellow recipients!
Learn more about the PILI Alumni Network »