Hughens Dolisca
Neighborhood Legal Services Association
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

You may not have known that you were special before you came here. In fact, very few of us really believe they themselves are special. We think of ourselves as practically everything else except special. We are intelligent, ambitious, dedicated, and hard working but for some of us it is hard to see that we are special.

Yet, every one of us this summer set aside our individual ambitions, and dedicated our time for a more selfless cause. We used our experience and intelligence to help others. The experience we have gained this summer will stay with us for a lifetime. But it is the people we helped, the lives we’ve touched, the way we used our skills to make a difference. That makes us special.

The thing that brought you and me together is our MLK Internship. The internship gave us all an opportunity to be part of the legal aid community, one which we graciously accepted. Every day when I went into the office, I knew I had an opportunity to help someone who might not have had a chance if not for the services we provided for them. In closing I leave you with this. One of the reasons, one of the missions, one of the objectives, for the remainder of our careers should be, to never forget that we have not just a duty, but an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves.