FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY, December 2, 2021— The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights has launched the Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship Program to honor the organization's former Associate Director and child's rights advocate. Elizabeth Frankel joined the Young Center in late 2009. She not only fought for hundreds of children in immigration proceedings, reuniting separated families and ensuring children landed somewhere safe, she single-handedly launched the Young Center's office in Harlingen, Texas and later expanded the Child Advocate program to six other cities across the country. The Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship, launched with the support of more than one hundred family members, friends, former students, and colleagues of Liz, honors Liz's fighting spirit and her dedication to justice for children.

"This Fellowship is something Liz would've wanted—an opportunity for law students to learn to advocate zealously and effectively for immigrant children and families," said Young Center Executive Director Gladis Molina Alt. "It was an honor to work alongside Liz and learn from her. It will be a privilege to be part of this long-term effort to develop a corps of attorneys trained to approach children’s cases with the same curiosity, compassion, and rigor that Liz brought to her advocacy.”

The Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship Program will enable fellows to spend 10 weeks training to advocate for children. The Fellows will serve as Child Advocates for individual children, and will also conduct legal research and writing, under the guidance of Young Center staff within the Child Advocate Program. Fellows will be based in New York City and have the opportunity to spend a week of the Fellowship Program in the Young Center’s Harlingen office to understand how immigration patterns, enforcement, and advocacy play out on the ground along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Elizabeth was devoted to protecting children’s rights through her work with the Young Center, and our family is so appreciative of the Young Center’s establishment of the Fellowship Program and of the generous contributions of friends and family in her memory which have made this Fellowship Program possible. While Elizabeth was dedicated to all aspects of her work, we know that the teaching experience in her years with the Young Center at the University of Chicago Law School was particularly meaningful. Elizabeth would be pleased and honored to know of this Fellowship Program, and we hope it will inspire others to carry on the work to which she was so dedicated,” said Liz’s family.

To learn more about the Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship Program or apply, click here.

To learn more about Elizabeth Frankel's work and legacy, click here.

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Noorjahan Akbar at media@theyoungcenter.org or 202-725-7184.