Education Pipeline Initiative

Redefining Leadership Through Public Service and Education

The Pacific McGeorge Education Pipeline Initiative (EPI) is a collaborative effort to increase the academic persistence and educational achievement of disadvantaged youth in the Sacramento area with an emphasis on law and leadership.

The University of the Pacific and Pacific McGeorge School of Law,
in cooperation with many
dedicated partners in the non-profit and legal community, provide co-curricular academic programs to increase the likelihood that disadvantaged students will obtain a college degree and attend graduate school, particularly law school. Students underrepresented in colleges and law schools are specifically targeted.

Law-themed learning activities are the foundation for the Pipeline program, which involves public school student interaction with law students, lawyers, judges, the law school environment and issues relating to justice and civic responsibility. At the elementary school level, reading improvement is the cornerstone Pipeline activity.

We believe every law school should create and sustain an Education Pipeline Initiative in its community. Why?

Law school graduates account for a large proportion of the nation's leaders including all of our judges, 58% of members of the U.S. Senate, 40% members of the U.S. House, and 26 of our 44 presidents throughout U.S. history. These facts emphasize the central role of law and our legal system of democracy. Without student body diversity, the law school mission of producing a broadly inclusive profession, capable of uniting our nation's powerful diversity, remains elusive. Yet today, law school graduates are predominantly white, with fewer than one in ten from a minority community.
In the current competitive climate, where disadvantaged students do not present the credentials equal to other applicants, law schools cannot achieve a proportionally culturally diverse student population. This disparity reflects achievement and aspiration gaps that begin as early as preschool.
To increase diversity, law schools must work beyond their gates to increase the qualified applicant pool of students who persist in rigorous academic work and stay in high school and college. To grow the pool of students interested in and qualified for admission to law school, we must direct our attention to the many points along the education pipeline.
Law schools have significant resources to bring to bear on improving student quality, achievement, and aspiration. They can work with young students to instill confidence and produce the skills essential to law school and to increase student aspiration to persist in school from preschool to graduate school.
At every point along the pipeline, participants benefit, personally and professionally.

For more information contact:
Christine Minero, Pipeline Director
e-mail or 916.739.7012