A group of students in Mitchell Hamline’s Hybrid Program have thrown their support behind a scholarship to assist future students, even before they’ve graduated.
The scholarship is named for George Vaughn. Born the son of former slaves in Kentucky, Vaughn earned a J.D. by attending night classes at Walden University in Nashville, Tenn., before joining the Army during World War I.
As an attorney, Vaughn went on to argue the landmark case Shelley v. Kraemer before the Supreme Court in 1948. Vaughn convinced the Court to strike down race-based housing agreements used by real estate associations to segregate neighborhoods.
Claire Fuller, a Hybrid Program student who lives in Wilson, Wyo., said Vaughn’s story inspired her and other students to start the scholarship. She is a member of the first cohort of the Hybrid Program, which started in January 2015 and is scheduled to graduate in 2019.
Vaughn was able to earn his J.D. as a part-time student, something the Hybrid Program allows students do from anywhere in the country. Mitchell Hamline is the first and only ABA-approved law school in the country to offer the part-time, on-campus/online J.D.
“We have been given an opportunity to attend a part-time law program unlike any other,” Fuller said. “There is no limit on what we, and future hybrid students, will be able to do with this education.”
Fuller hopes the George Vaughn scholarship will keep those opportunities open to future students, perhaps even someone who could bring about great change like Vaughn himself.
The founding group of scholarship supporters are Hybrid Program students, but Fuller says anyone can help support the scholarship by making a donation online and mentioning the George Vaughn Scholarship.