Board of Directors
Current Board of Directors
Meet the Board
-
Alan Huang
Georgetown University Law Center
-
Fernando Hernandez Paredes
National Immigrant Justice Center
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Theis (left)
-
John Tyson
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
-
Prior to law school, Alan worked in assisting small, minority-owned businesses and advocating for constituents in the congressional district office. Realizing his passion lies in advocacy, regulatory, and government-related work, he continued pursuing an academic career in law school. His law school career is a testament to his determination to succeed and contribute back to the community. He is dedicated to the cause of equal opportunity in education and helping underprivileged communities. As a person at the crossroads of minority identities, he deeply understands the obstacles they have to overcome, as he has overcome many himself.
Alan spent his 1L summer at the U.S. District Court as a judicial intern. He will continue his legal career with Paul Hastings in DC during the 2L summer.
-
Fernando founded Castillo Scholars in honor of Judge Castillo with Elizabeth. Fernando Hernandez Paredes is a staff attorney with the National Immigration Justice Center’s Asylum Project with experience in criminal defense and civil litigation. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. During his time there, he served as the Latinx Law Student Association President and co-founded the Castillo Scholars Mentorship Program which aims to help people of color, students of limited means, and first-generation law students achieve their dream of law school admissions. He is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Minnesota.
-
John Tyson is a 3L interested in health law, particularly health operations and regulatory compliance. A Hoosier native, he graduated from Indiana University in 2010 with a B.S. in Psychology and pledged to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. In 2013, John moved to Chicago enlisted in the Army Reserve, and served as a medic for 8 years. In his civilian life, he worked within the clinical research field, first as a research coordinator and then as a clinical trial budget analyst. During his 1L and 2L summers, John interned in-house at AbbVie, Inc. and Hall, Render, Killian, Heath, & Lyman, P.C, respectively. In his free time, he enjoys weightlifting, gardening, and watching anime.
Previous Boards
Board of 2021-2023
-
As Castillo Scholars, Loyola students mentor underrepresented applicants to law school
In her first semester at Loyola Law School, Katia Cortes did what all her fellow first-years did: register for torts class. She said to a classmate—one of the only other Latinas in her section—“I don’t know what a tort is, but I’m here.”
That classmate was Maria Ortega Castro (BS ’19), an immigrant and first-generation college student, just like Cortes. The fact that both were “here,” enrolled in law school, was no small feat.
Aceves’s backstory is unlike that of her co-directors. She was born and raised in Chicago, the daughter of a Loyola law alumnus. Her father, Luis Aceves (JD ’91), was able to advise her throughout the application process, but, she says, “I knew there were so many times that I would have had no idea what to do if it weren’t for my dad.”
Also, after Aceves arrived at law school, she felt discouraged that “people were always surprised to hear I was a second-generation law school student.”
“I even had to Google how to get into community college,” says Ortega Castro. “I found one Latina lawyer [Nubia Willman (JD ’10)] on Instagram and basically stalked her—asked her all my questions. She really helped guide me, and now my mission is to do the same for those who come after me.”
Ortega Castro, Cortes, and Vanessa Aceves did just that as co-directors of the School of Law’s Castillo Scholars Mentorship Program.