'A positive, transformative experience': Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab celebrates graduating fellows - Harvard Law School

This April, students, staff, and friends of Harvard Law School’s Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab (Y-Lab) gathered to celebrated the graduation of their Class of 2025 Fellows.

“Y-Lab has definitely been the highlight of my HLS experience, getting to be a part of all of these amazing clinics that are exactly in my interest area of education and youth advocacy. It has been such a privilege and the best substantive learning experience that I’ve had during my law school,” says Sophie Lenihan ’25, member of the Y-Lab leadership committee.

Since its inception in 2022, Y-Lab has served as an immersive experience for second- and third-year students wishing to gain deep expertise in youth advocacy through coursework and clinics—namely, the Education Law Clinics and the Child Advocacy Clinic. The program has continued to develop in recent years with the aid of the student fellows, whose areas of interest range from juvenile criminal defense to homeschooling reform to disability advocacy. By allowing students to select a series of clinics, courses, and writing project topics that reflect their individualized interests, the program facilitates students in receiving a wide-reaching and focused education.

At the graduation ceremony, Y-Lab leadership team Michael Gregory ’04, director of the Education Law Clinics, Jodi Guinn ’14, clinical instructor at the Education Law Clinic, and Crisanne Hazen, director of the Child Advocacy Clinic, shared comments about each student, including notes on their scholarship and contributions to the program. In all, the ceremony was a testament to the strength of the Y-Lab community and the richness of the students’ shared academic experiences.

“Y-Lab has been an incredible experience because—it’s in the name—the community is truly centered around youth advocacy,” says graduating fellow Bobby Stroup ’25. “It’s inspiring and encouraging to be with people who have a common interest, but also getting to see a diversity of experiences and a diversity of expertise as people dive into working in the criminal justice system, or working with foster youth, or working with students with disabilities. Looking forward towards my career, I know that I’m going to be looking for opportunities to work with youth in various aspects.”

“This community and this space has been so nourishing,” adds graduating fellow Leela Mennillo ’25. “Oftentimes, when you’re going through law school classes, there’s a tendency to be divorced from the reality of the law and how it really impacts real people. To be in a space with so many amazing human beings who share the common goal of advocating for and promoting the rights of young people is so powerful.”

Lenihan too praises the community she found in Y-Lab. “I feel so lucky to get to go to the Yellow House where we’re housed every day. There are really amazing, smart, passionate, kind people there that you get to work with, and it makes the work so much more fun to do it with a group of people who you love and respect. I really can’t say enough good things about Y-Lab. It has been such a positive, transformative part of my law school experience.”