Washington, DC (August 7, 2026) — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) Law Foundation (NLF) announced today that Malakai Espinosa, Cynthia Phan and Yuwen Wang, second-year law students at UCLA School of Law, Boston University School of Law and the University of Chicago School of Law, respectively, have been awarded prestigious SAIL Scholarships for their outstanding professional promise and leadership potential.
“Cynthia, Malakai, and Yuwen embody academic excellence, leadership, and the bright future of the legal field,” said NLF President Bonnie Wolf. “NLF and SAIL are honored to support their journeys and to invest in leaders who will use their talents to serve others, expand opportunity, and create meaningful change in their communities.”
Malakai Espinosa is pursuing a joint J.D./M.P.H. at the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Among other honors and activities, he is a member of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and received a Philippine American Bar Association Scholarship, a UCLA Law Faculty Scholarship and a Legal Education Access Pipeline Public Interest Summer Grant. He also serves as co-chair of the law school’s Asian/Pacific Islander Law Students Association, co-chair of the El Centro Education Rights Project and chief managing editor of the Pacific Basin Law Journal. Malakai earned his B.S. summa cum laude in Human Biology and Society from UCLA, where he was on the Dean’s Honor List for four years, president of Samahang Pilipino and played tuba for the UCLA marching band. He is a member of the board of the UCLA Pilipino Alumni Association, and this summer, Malakai was a judicial extern for a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Cynthia Phan is a second-year law student at Boston University School of Law, where she is a Dean’s Scholarship recipient, a Legal Writing Fellow and co-president of the Public Interest Law Society. She received her B.A. summa cum laude in International Relations from Boston University, where she received a Thomas M. Menino Scholarship and engaged in academic research and volunteer work in Nairobi, Kenya; Boston, MA; Geneva, Switzerland; Tel-Aviv, Israel; and the West Bank. Between her undergraduate studies and law school, Cynthia worked for two years as a juvenile diversion coordinator with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in Boston. She is the author of Stories from the Street: Nurturing Empathy among Boston Residents and spent this summer as a legal intern with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City.
Yuwen Wang is a 2028 J.D. candidate at the University of Chicago Law School, where she is a member of the University of Chicago Law Review and the law school’s Public Interest Leadership Program; treasurer of First Generation Professionals; and programming director of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. She received her B.A. in Sociology and Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received general honors as well as departmental honors in Sociology. Between college and law school, Yuwen worked as a senior legal assistant at a national public interest law firm, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP. She was previously an undergraduate intern with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section. This summer, she worked as a legal intern for the Hon. Jeannette Vargas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
“We are excited to welcome Malakai, Cynthia and Yuwen into the seventh cohort of SAIL Scholars,” said Ivan Fong, who with his wife Sharon endowed the NLF SAIL Scholarship program. “All three of them show great promise as leaders who give generously of their time and effort to the broader community. We could not be more delighted to help them as they complete their academic work and become part of the next generation of leaders in our profession.”
Two unique aspects of the SAIL Scholarship program are that, in addition to monetary support, SAIL Scholars will also receive mentoring and leadership development from each other and from a network of legal and community leaders. “A second feature of this scholarship program,” said Sharon Fong, “is that the recipients commit to ‘paying it forward’ — by supporting each other, future SAIL Scholars and the communities in which they will live and work.”
In addition to Sharon and Ivan Fong, the 2026 NLF SAIL Scholarship selection committee was comprised of Suzan Chau, Supervising Attorney for the Elder Justice & Civil Resource Center for the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania; the Honorable Theodore Chuang, U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland; Esther Lim, Partner and Chief Community Officer at Finnegan; and Caroline Tsai, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at FIS.
NLF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that carries out its work primarily by awarding scholarships and fellowships that promote the interests of the Asian Pacific American community. Since its founding, the Foundation has awarded nearly $2 million in scholarships, fellowships and internships.
For more information about NLF and the SAIL Scholarship program and application process, please visit www.napabalawfoundation.org/scholarships.
