Isabelle Fonseca is a rising 2L and Public Interest Law Fellow at UMass School of Law. Fonseca graduated from Boston University with a BA in Political Science and African American and Black Diaspora Studies, where she grounded her academic work in community service-oriented experiences. She was born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Cape Verdean immigrant parents. Growing up in an immigrant household, she saw firsthand how public policy shapes everyday life and often leaves families like hers unheard and underrepresented. Fonseca interned with Act On Mass, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to increasing transparency in the Massachusetts State House, and later served on the immigration team of Senator Edward J. Markey’s Boston office. She looks forward to using her law degree to further her commitment to advancing equity and expanding access to justice for underserved communities. Fonseca will spend her summer in the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement. She’ll be mentored by Sean Fontes, employment and litigation counsel at Partridge Snow & Hahn, former head of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training’s legal division, and Rappaport Center board member, as well as Ana Muñoz, partner at Zalkind, Duncan, and Bernstein.