Kryder Law Group Awards First-Generation College Student Scholarship to Charles Graham Jr., Law Student at Thurgood Marshall School of Law

    CHICAGO, IL, October 30, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Kryder Law Group LLC, the Chicago-based personal injury firm, has awarded its $1,000 First-Generation College Student Scholarship to Charles Graham Jr., 31, a law student at Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Southern Texas University, a public historically black college and university (HBCU).

First-generation college students face myriad obstacles as they try to navigate the unknown aspects of higher education. The First Generation Foundation estimates that 89% of first-generation students are likely to drop out, compared to 45% of their peers whose parents have a college degree.

The Kryder Law Group established this scholarship to encourage first-generation students and to raise awareness among scholarship entrants of the issues they will have to overcome. As a personal injury firm, Kryder Law Group LLC is dedicated to public service in the legal system and the community. The firm also offers a Community Leadership Scholarship.

Graham's outstanding accomplishments and his life journey made him an easy selection. His essay was an ode to what he learned from working at his father's shoe repair business and how those lessons proved a blueprint for his path to success.

He articulated the fears of many first-generation college students: "Do I really have what it takes to succeed in college? Did I only get in to meet a diversity quota? Will my peers accept the son of a shoeshine man?"

Graham has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined Teach for America and then taught in Philadelphia and Houston. He was on a path to becoming a school administrator before he decided to attend law school in the hopes of becoming a civil rights attorney.

He has received numerous academic awards and was a law clerk for Disability Rights Texas as well as a judicial intern for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He and his wife live in Houston and have two small children.

For more information on the Kryder Law Group LLC scholarship, visit our website. For more information about the firm, call (312) 598-0982.

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