Listen
Many cultures around the world have traditions of oral storytelling. Oral storytelling is often thought to convey “pathos” — values and emotions. We use open-ended questions to encourage contributors to tell their story from their own perspectives. We bring you these stories with no filter to create an authentic dialogue.
Iris Carbonel's Story
Iris is a Davis Polk Leadership Initiative Member and a Leadership Co-Fellow. In this capacity, Iris is working with fellow women of color at CLS to build a Law School Pathways Program designed to foster ties between Columbia University and its surrounding communities, increasing true diversity and representation within the legal profession, and uplifting traditionally forgotten groups.
Iris is first-generation in every sense of the word. Iris comes from a family of immigrants and considers herself a first-generation college and law student. Iris grew up in a low-income Black and Latinx community, which informed her legal interest in racial and economic justice.
Stacy Okoro’s Story
Stacy is from San Jose, CA. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University—San Luis Obispo with a major in Political Science and a double minor in Psychology and Ethics, Public Policy, Science and Technology. Before law school, Stacy worked as an Intellectual Property legal assistant at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP in Palo Alto, CA. During her 1L summer, Stacy was an intern in the Office of General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. And during her 2L summer, she will be a Summer Associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati working with the Privacy and Cybersecurity team in Washington, D.C. At CLS, Stacy is currently working to design and execute The Law School Pathways Program, which aims to provide year-long guidance to first-generation, low-income, justice-impacted, and minority students from the Harlem, Bronx, Uptown area who are considering attending law school. Additionally, Stacy was the Vice President for First Generation Professionals, the Conference and Gala Co-chair for Empowering Women of Color, an editorial staff member for Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, and an extern with the Knight First Amendment Institute. She is also an active member of the Black Law Student Association, First Generation Professionals, Empowering Women of Color, Latinx Law Student Association, and the Society for Law, Science, and Technology. Stacy is passionate about privacy, data security, and surveillance, especially as it relates to the impacts of emerging technologies on Black and brown bodies. She enjoys thrifting, watching live theatre, and going to secret music shows.
Mary Gardner’s Story
Mary Gardner is a rising 3L public interest student from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Prior to law school, she worked as a lobbyist for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She graduated from George Washington University with a degree in International Affairs and Spanish. This past year at CLS, she served as the President of the Student Senate and Public Interest Chair of Outlaws, one of the LGBTQ+ organizations at the law school. As President of the Student Senate during a difficult pandemic period for the law school, Mary successfully led the charge and lobbied the schools administration to consider student demands as to pandemic policy. This involved significant pushback from systems of power. Mary loves baking (and eating) Southern desserts, and is a proud mother to her cat, Smoky.
Alexis Bank’s Story
Alexis Banks is a 2L at Columbia Law School and an alumna of Vanderbilt University. Through a Davis Polk Innovation Grant, Alexis is developing a short film that highlights Columbia Law students’ experiences with insensitivity and bias. After a year at the law school, Alexis was struck by interactions that indicated that racism and racist ideologies still had a foothold within the law school. After a pandemic that disproportionately affected Black and brown Americans radically changed our lives and a renewed movement for racial equality returned to the nation's streets, Alexis felt the need to hear the stories of Columbia Law students and document their experience with racism at the school. Ultimately, the goal of translating these stories to film is that by engaging with these narratives, Columbia Law School can identify a way to become an anti-racist, liberated institution. In addition to her work as a Davis Polk Innovation Grant recipient, Alexis is involved in numerous student organizations and was a Fall Legal Extern with the Knight First Amendment Institute in Fall 2020. Before coming to Columbia, Alexis was a Communications Intern with the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago and an English Language Assistant with Meddeas in Ciudad Real and Valencia, Spain.
