First-generation Bruins looking to enter the legal field now have a club to call their own.
The First-Generation Pre-Law Association was founded in May and has since gained about 100 members, said Brianna Gonzalez Ulloa, the club’s co-president. First-generation students made up nearly a record-high 24.2% of the 2025 nationwide entering class of law students, according to the American Bar Association.
The association aims to form a community that supports first-generation students as they prepare to apply to law school, said Ulloa, a founding member of the organization.
Ulloa, a rising fourth-year English and psychology student, added that the FGPLA seeks to guide students from the start to the end of their pre-law journey by providing students with concrete guidance.
“I feel that sometimes having these salient identities becomes a very unheard and unseen aspect of ourselves,” said Isabella Anaya, FGPLA’s vice president of external affairs. “When it’s something that’s really important to students and it can be part of the reason why they’re choosing to enter a specific legal field, … it resonates with them or they want to give back to their personal community.”
Ulloa said the board members are influenced by their experiences with navigating college as first-generation, transfer and non-traditional students. The FGPLA accepts members from all backgrounds, including first-generation college students, law students, or students with family members who are not supportive of their college path, she added.
Andrea Villamar, the FGPLA’s social chair, said she believes it is important for first-generation students to have a space where their unique problems and experiences are understood.
Systemic barriers make it more difficult for first-generation students to access a legal education, Ulloa said. Internships are often an unrealistic option for students without the financial means to accept unpaid positions, she added.
“A lot of first-generation students are from marginalized communities and have identities that aren’t necessarily included in conversations,” Ulloa said. “It’s very hard financially, emotionally and sometimes even physically.”
The FGPLA plans to offer Law School Admission Test study groups to ensure students feel supported during their LSAT preparation journey, Ulloa said. She added that the FGPLA seeks to provide proctored practice LSAT testing once or twice a quarter to help students adjust to standardized testing environments.
“I was a first-generation student, and I didn’t have much experience with that (standardized testing),” she said. “The testing environment itself – it’s very demanding, it’s very intense.”
The association also serves as a social community to help students adjust to the legal profession – a field she feels can often be overly formal or exclusionary, Ulloa said.
The FGPLA also plans to offer a peer mentorship program, where students can have conversations with club members from similar backgrounds, Ulloa said. Members will be paired based on their year and the type of college path they are on – such as first-year entry, transfer or non-traditional paths, she added.
“As a first-generation, you do not have that guidance and you do not have those mentors to help you, guide you through this very hard process,” said Villamar, a rising third-year labor studies and political science student. “It’s important to have these resources so that you can make the least mistakes you can, especially in this very tough career.”
The association’s founding came as some law firms have scaled back on their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives due to pressure from the Trump administration, Ulloa said.
Nearly 50 law firms across the country have edited or removed diversity, equity and inclusion references from their websites, according to Reuters. The changes came after Trump issued multiple executive orders banning DEI, and pressuring specific firms to eliminate their diversity initiatives in March and April, calling such programs a “serious violation of the public trust.”
Ulloa said she is concerned about whether or not these directives may impact the association’s ability to connect with legal professionals.
“Right now, with that climate and with that pressure from the administration, who knows where that’ll look like – and if we’re fortunate enough, then great,” she said. “But if not, we’ll just continue moving forward because that’s the best thing you can do.”
Ulloa added that, above all else, the club’s founding members were motivated to give students the opportunity to feel seen and connect with those who have similar identities and journeys.
“In terms of what inspired us, it was just a belief that for those who want to go into the law, they can at any stage,” she said. “We as a community are meant to be here to support you.”
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