Feruza Legass Awarded Lemberg Law Scholarship

Updated on April 18th, 2019 Author: Sergei Lemberg

Lemberg Law is pleased to announce that Feruza Legass of Elk Grove, California, has been selected as the recipient of the firm’s $1,250 “Entrepreneurial Spirit” 2019 undergraduate scholarship for her debt collection-themed Facebook-style ad.

Her submitted caption read, “Debt is already a heavy burden. The harassment associated with the need to pay is absolutely unnecessary and inhumane. Having people constantly call for payment is not effective at all. Having a way to help both sides achieve their goal is much more impactful. The American people have had it with this badgering and there definitely needs to be a change.”

Feruza is currently a senior at Laguna Creek High School, where she is in the school’s rigorous International Baccalaureate Programme. “IB requires me to not just know the facts, but to also analyze the information presented in the context of the situation as a whole,” she said. She especially enjoys learning about the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement in her “History of the Americas” class, and has an affinity for analyzing the poetry central to her English curriculum. “Learning about poems and going in-depth is so much different than I expected,” she said. “It’s confusing when you first read them, but then you start picking out the little things like literary devices and you begin to uncover stories within five- or ten-line poems. That’s really cool.”

When she’s not in class, Feruza is incredibly busy with extracurricular activities. She has participated in student government all four years of high school, and currently serves as Rally Chair, which requires her to organize and lead schoolwide rallies. She is also a student representative on the School Site Council, which is responsible for allocating discretionary funding. She runs on the school’s cross-country team, and is president of the Ethiopian Club, media chair for the Key Club, treasurer for UNICEF, secretary for the Fashion Club, and the historian for Interact, which is an affiliate of the Rotary Club. She has led political movements on campus, including a walkout in protest of school shootings.

Feruza’s community service extends outside of school. In addition to volunteering at the Front Street Animal Shelter, she works with children ages 7 to 14 at the Ethiopian Community Center. “It’s important for them to know their culture and know where they came from,” she said. “We do activities based on our history.”

After graduating from high school in May, Feruza’s next step is to Hampton University, one of the country’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where she will major in History. What drew her to Hampton’s Virginia campus? “I really want to go into politics, and Hampton is so close to Washington, D.C., and the capitol, legislative branch, and executive branch,” she said. “It’s so different from here, and requires me to step outside of my comfort zone and improve myself and my skills.”

Feruza is thrilled and grateful to receive Lemberg Law’s “Entrepreneurial Spirit” scholarship. “It means so much to me because I’m the first in my family to go to college,” she said. “I’m the first of four, and what I want to do – go far away and go to law school – is difficult for my parents. Getting this help is really important to me because it makes it easier on them.”

The Lemberg Law team wants to congratulate Feruza on her accomplishments, and is pleased to be able to help her pursue her studies at Hampton.

You can see a list of past scholarship recipients here, and find information about Lemberg Law’s current open scholarships here.