On Sunday, April 3, The Inspiration Scholarship Foundation awarded the 2011 Scott L. Teter Litigation Award to Trent West of Howell.
The Scott L. Teter Litigation Award is awarded annually by the foundation to a third-year student at Thomas M. Cooley Law School who has excelled in the school’s litigation concentration and who demonstrates a desire to use his or her law degree to serve the people of the State of Michigan.
The award is named in honor of former Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teter, in recognition of his long-term dedication to using his law degree to serve Michigan and to mentoring aspiring young law students to do the same.
West, a native of Illinois, moved to Michigan to attend law school and quickly found himself desiring to use his law degree to help the people of Michigan during its current economic struggles.
Specifically, West found himself wanting to work in a prosecuting attorney’s office in Michigan.
West served as an intern at both the Barry County Prosecutor’s Office and the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office.
He currently works as an intern at the Michigan Court of Appeals in the Prehearing Division.
Despite using most of his free time serving as an intern to help in various prosecutor’s offices, West still managed to excel as a student at Cooley and will graduate number 10 in his class of 418 students this coming May.
While attending Cooley he also served as the Managing Associate Editor of the school’s law review and represented the school on the National Veterans Law Appellate Advocacy Competition Team.
Inspiration Scholarship Foundation President Sarah Mathews of Dowagiac, along with Co-Vice President Evelyn Calogero, presented West with the $250 scholarship and a pen engraved with the Foundation’s motto, “Dare to Inspire,” after the final rounds of Cooley’s Intra-School Moot Court Competition so the foundation could share the story of his inspiring success with his fellow classmates present for the competition which West himself had been a finalist in during the fall of 2009.
The Inspiration Scholarship Foundation is a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation incorporated for the sole purpose of raising and distributing scholarships to deserving individuals to inspire them to pursue higher education.
The Foundation was incorporated in May 2008 and currently manages three scholarships: The Brenda Mast Memorial Scholarship, the Mary J. Wilkinson Scholarship, and the Scott L. Teter Litigation Award.
For further information about the foundation, feel free to contact the foundation’s board of directors at: directors@daretoinspire.org.