{"id":4431,"date":"2024-07-11T16:36:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/?p=4431"},"modified":"2025-05-28T20:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T00:02:11","slug":"a-summer-spark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2024\/a-summer-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"A Summer Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Cheyenne N. Chambers | Photo by David Colwell<\/p><\/div>\n

When <\/span>Cheyenne N. Chambers<\/b> was a Case Western Reserve undergraduate, she secured a summer externship with the top federal judge in Cleveland\u2014 the kind of opportunity typically reserved for law students. \u201cIt was extraordinary,\u201d recalled <\/span>Laura Tartakoff,<\/b> JD (LAW \u201990), a senior instructor in the Department of Political Science, who taught Chambers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talent and tenacity led to the position with U.S. District Judge <\/span>Solomon Oliver Jr<\/b>.; a College of Arts and Sciences grant made it possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chambers said she took notes during hearings and jury trials, summarized lawyers\u2019 briefs and by the end of the summer even drafted an opinion. \u201cIt was a life-changing moment, honestly,\u201d said Chambers, JD (CWR \u201911, GRS \u201911, history). \u201cI give Judge Oliver so much credit for where I am today. It was an amazing experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She has since blazed a professional path and is now a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an undergraduate, Chambers knew she wanted to someday join the federal bench, so she wrote to every federal judge in the northern Ohio region about a summer spot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was not taking no for an answer,\u201d she said. It was 2010, the same year Oliver, JD (GRS \u201974, political science), became chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chambers also applied for a Wellman Hill Political Science Internship Grant to make the experience financially possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Established by <\/span>Elizabeth Hill<\/b>, JD (CWR \u201997; GRS \u201997, political science), and named for her grandfather, the program provides support for CWRU political science majors taking unpaid summer jobs in public service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chambers later graduated from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, clerked for a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and became a civil rights attorney at a prominent Charlotte, North Carolina, law firm.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 35, she works in the Justice Department\u2019s Employment Litigation Section, which enforces both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. The first protects employees and job applicants from employment discrimination and the second does the same for military service members and veterans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chambers is also a donor and mentor. In 2015, just a year after graduating from law school, she established a small scholarship for members of the the Black Law Students Association at the Moritz College to show gratitude and create and mentor a network of scholars at a time when roughly just 5% of lawyers in the United States are Black.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome people want to be super financially ready before starting this type of task,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cBut I thought … \u2018Let\u2019s start now, and every year I\u2019ll increase the award for the scholarship.\u2019\u201d And that\u2019s what she\u2019s been doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chambers still aims to become a federal appellate judge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, Case [Western Reserve] laid the foundation for me to excel,\u201d she said. \u201cIt built this tenacity that I still carry with me as a litigator.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe Spartans all have this grit about us,\u201d she added. \u201cIt was just instilled in us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Cheyenne N. Chambers<\/b> was a Case Western Reserve undergraduate, she secured a summer externship with the top federal judge in Cleveland\u2014 the kind of opportunity typically reserved for law students. …Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":4436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/07\/02210219\/P32_Cheyenne-Chambers-24_Credit_David_Colwell.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4431"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4526,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431\/revisions\/4526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}