Children and Family Justice Center, Bluhm Legal Clinic

The United States is one of a handful of countries that allows youth under 18 to receive life sentences without parole. The sentence has been handed out to over 2,000 juvenile offenders, and more than half of the states require juvenile life without parole for certain offenses. Patricia Soung will work on legal advocacy, coalition-building, and outreach to challenge juvenile life without parole and achieve fairer sentencing for youth in Illinois.

Soung earned her JD from Northwestern University School of Law, where she served as co-Executive Articles Editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights and Vice-President of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. During law school she conducted independent research on juvenile justice and education issues, worked with several criminal and juvenile justice clinics, and served as a board member of Cross-City Campaign for School Reform and a planning member of the Harvard University Annual National Symposium on Education Reform. Prior to law school, Soung worked to increase the capacity and support of youth social justice efforts across the country as the Director of Education and Outreach for the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing in New York and a Fellow at the Tides Foundation in San Francisco. She graduated from Stanford University with honors in 2001, where she earned several distinctions for her commitment to public service and advocacy in anti-poverty projects.

Chicago, IL