August 17, 2007        

Touro Law First-Year Students Show Early Interest in Community Service
First-Year Law Students Volunteer for Community Service Projects

Central Islip, N.Y. – As Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center welcomes approximately 280 first-year students, the new law students welcome their responsibilities to community service. For the first time, Touro Law Center has introduced a voluntary public service component of Orientation for new students called Touro Law Cares (TLC).

“Touro Law has always been committed to social justice and community service in addition to academic excellence. Touro Law Cares reinforces this commitment to students during their first days at Touro and provides them with the opportunity to develop a personal dedication to service as well,” said Dean Lawrence Raful. “I am truly pleased to have so many students volunteer to make a difference in the community.”

Touro Law Cares included day and evening projects in the community. The day project involved historic preservation work with the Central Islip Civic Council to contribute to neighborhood revitalization in partnership with the community. Students helped by painting the interior of a one-room schoolhouse, assisting with the restoration
of the gatehouse, more than 100 years old that once stood at the Central Islip State Hospital, among other projects. The schoolhouse is used now for a “Step Back in Time” program where special tours for schoolchildren from pre-kindergarten to 6th grade are held.  It is projected the Gatehouse will be used for the same purpose, by turning it into a mini-local history museum.  

The evening activity was a presentation by Literacy Suffolk, Inc., an organization that strives to promote literacy among all citizens. The organization has partnered with Touro to create a project in which Touro students will assist in the development of more user-friendly legal and court documents for the public. The program involves a presentation about the extent of low literacy among Suffolk County’s adult population. This presentation also exposed the myths that harm low-income litigants when members of the legal profession assume literacy. An interactive presentation was also included to prepare students for pro bono work in the area of literacy and the law.  Students were supervised by Tom Maligno, Touro’s Executive Director of the Public Advocacy Center and Director of Public Interest.

Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center has a cutting-edge academic plan and a new 185,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art law campus adjacent to and working with a state and a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. Touro’s new campus provides a one-of-a kind learning model for law students, combining a rigorous curriculum taught by expert faculty with a practical courtroom experience. Touro, which has a student body of approximately 750 and an alumni base of more than 5,000, offers full- and part-time J.D. programs as well as graduate law programs.

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