Nidya Stephanie Gutierrez

Ms. Gutierrez is entering her third year at Loyola Law School this fall.  Ms. Gutierrez has demonstrated a strong commitment to issues involving women and children as far back as high school.  During that time, she volunteered with the Hamilton High School’s English Learning Program, where she encountered many students from Mexico, Central America, and South America whom she noticed were missing class often.  As it turned out, such students could not attend class due to having to appear at immigration court hearings as “unaccompanied minors.”

After obtaining her undergraduate degree from UCLA, Ms. Gutierrez worked as a legal assistant at an immigration law firm where she worked directly with unaccompanied minors, as well as women who were domestic violence victims.

As a first year law student at Loyola, Ms. Gutierrez volunteered with the Kinship Care Department of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, where she was able to continue working with unaccompanied minors within the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

During her second year at Loyola, Ms. Gutierrez joined the law school’s Center for Juvenile Law and Policy (“Center”), specifically the Juvenile Innocence & Fair Sentencing Clinic, where she represents juveniles sentenced to adult sentences in the California prison system.  She will likely be continuing with the Center this coming school year as she has been assigned to four serious cases, all of which involve individuals currently serving life sentences for crimes that they committed as juveniles.