Shaun Stallworth’s (J.D. ’08) passion for advocacy developed partially out of the discomfort he sometimes felt as one of only four people of color in his first-year class of nearly 200 students at the 威尼斯人娱乐城 法学院.
“I don't know if some folks realize that's a big deal until you walk in those shoes as a first year, with all the other stress you're dealing with,” Stallworth said. “And then add on that you're the only person of color — that's tough.”
Although he said he has many fond memories of law school and wouldn’t trade his experience for anything, Stallworth recognizes that his experience may have been atypical.
“I'm used to being in places where I may be the only person of color — maybe one of two or three,” he explained. “I've been blessed to have a ton of Black friends, white friends, friends of different colors. 但与此同时，当你是少数人之一或唯一一个人时，它仍然是你独特的东西。 I didn't have a bad experience, but it's different when you're the ‘other than’ in the room.”
That feeling of being “other than” can be especially prevalent among students like Stallworth, who are the first in their family to attend law school. 这些第一代法律系学生中有许多属于少数族裔，这往往给他们的教育之旅增加了额外的挑战。 Those challenges they face don’t simply disappear the moment they arrive on campus.
斯托沃斯记得，他有时会在课堂环境中感受到一种独特的压力，比如在讨论历史上的种族隔离案例时。
“When there's a question that kind of touches on the race thing, your friends and classmates look to you to be the monolith for all things Black,” Stallworth said. “Even though I don't mind expressing my opinion, that's some additional stress that maybe some others don't have.”
Stallworth’s experience led him to begin his enduring work of breaking down the barriers that cause people to feel excluded, marginalized or “other than.”
在法学院的第三年，斯托沃斯担任黑人法律学生协会的主席。 他注意到法学院内部缺乏多样性，这让他感到沮丧，于是他决定采取行动。 他联系了西班牙裔法律学生协会和亚裔美国法律学生协会的领导人，讨论了吸引和支持有色人种学生的解决方案。 斯托沃斯带领一小群学生领袖在堪萨斯城万豪乡村俱乐部广场策划了一场宴会，筹集了令人印象深刻的3万美元，并在堪萨斯大学法学院设立了第一个管道奖学金。
斯托沃斯说，他为自己发起了一年一度的学生奖学金而感到自豪，该奖学金帮助为有色人种创造了专门的机会。
“Being the leader of that effort definitely meant and means a lot to me,” he said. “To be able to give scholarship money back to other students who look like you and get more people in that position to see more (similar) faces in the classroom — that was something special to me.”
高等教育中仍然存在包容性和代表性的复杂问题，但斯托沃斯表示，他赞赏法学院多年来为增加多样性所做的共同努力。 这些努力包括成立一个新的校友多样性委员会，以及埃伦·y·苏尼（Ellen Y. Suni）开放门户奖学金基金（Ellen Y. Suni Opening Doors Scholarship Endowment），每年资助一名第一代法律系学生。
“I think efforts in the school have been so committed to this,” said Stallworth. “I'm currently on the 威尼斯人娱乐城 Law School Alumni Board, so I can certainly attest to the efforts that (former) Dean Suni and Dean Glesner Fines have made. They’re doing some great things with the students.”
斯托沃斯是路易斯安那州斯莱德尔人，从小就被这个以其跨文化和多语言遗产而闻名的地区丰富的风景、气味、味道和声音所包围。
“I always tell people I’m extremely blessed that I got the best of both worlds,” Stallworth said. “On one hand, I grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans, so I was able to go to some of the better schools in one of the better parishes in a state not known for its education. At the same time, I was close enough to be able to partake of everything that was part of that Southeast Louisiana culture.”
斯托沃斯和他的父母，一个是老师，一个是电脑程序员，住在离波旁街只有30分钟路程的地方。 But they were far enough away from the urban core to allow Stallworth to have plenty of what he calls “Tom Sawyer moments” — jumping off train trestles into the Mississippi River and swinging on tires suspended by ropes while alligators lurked below.
斯托沃斯留在路易斯安那州，同时在路易斯安那州立大学获得了传播学学士学位，辅修法语和工商管理。
A few years before Stallworth applied to law school, his mother suffered a medical malpractice ordeal that would shape her son’s future career path.
她在一次意外跌倒中背部受伤，需要手术修复受损的椎间盘。 不幸的是，外科医生在她的背部留下了海绵碎片，它们在那里呆了将近两个月，导致她全身感染和其他并发症。
Watching his mother suffer so much through no fault of her own was a “big jolt” to Stallworth that sparked his initial interest into becoming an attorney.
“I always thought that was kind of messed up what happened to a regular person like my mother, who works hard and does what she needs to do,” he said.
这段经历促使斯托沃斯攻读法律学位，并成为家中第一个律师。
多年后，目前在霍尔曼·斯齐亚沃尼有限责任公司担任法律顾问的斯托沃斯成功地建立了一家法律公司，为像他母亲一样在某种程度上受到冤屈、需要帮助的人寻求正义。 
斯托沃斯花了一段时间才在法律界找到了自己的位置。
在威尼斯人娱乐城法学院期间，他曾在大型国际律师事务所Sonnenschein Nath Rosenthal LLP（现为Dentons US LLP）担任书记员，并曾在密苏里州上诉法院短暂任职。 当时，斯托沃斯考虑成为一名检察官。 Then, as Stallworth’s studies were winding down, Sonnenschein presented him with a profitable opportunity he couldn’t refuse.
“They certainly were offering more money than I had ever made before, or my parents had ever made, so I took the opportunity to go to do big law,” Stallworth said.
Over the course of the next five years — from 2008 to 2013 — he represented large companies like Walmart, Lowe's, Sam’s Club and Harris Bank. While lucrative, the dense nature of large commercial litigation didn’t hold Stallworth’s interest for long. He became captivated by the stories fellow 威尼斯人娱乐城 法学院 alumnus Tom Ralston (J.D. ’08) shared with him during their workout sessions at the gym.
“He'd always have these great stories about doing employment law,” Stallworth said. “And he told me this really interesting story about what happened in this case and that case. And I thought, ‘Man, that seemed like so much fun.’ ”
When Stallworth eventually met Ralston’s colleague Kirk Holman (J.D. ’99) at an Inns of Court event in 2012, the two struck up a spirited conversation about plaintiff work and bonded over similarities in their upbringings. 霍尔曼是该地区最受尊敬的原告律师之一，他激励斯托沃斯认真考虑转行。
“(Holman) had a lot of passion for what he was doing, and that mattered to me,” Stallworth said.
Months later, Stallworth met with Anne Schiavone (J.D. ’99), Holman’s partner at the firm. 斯齐亚沃尼说服他，他可以做更愉快、压力更小的工作，而不必牺牲他在那家大型防务公司的收入。
这种对法律领域另一端的大胆尝试给斯托沃斯带来了回报。 霍尔曼斯齐亚沃尼事务所几乎完全由威尼斯人娱乐城法学院的毕业生组成，事务所的支持、协作环境让斯托沃斯在找到更大工作目标的同时茁壮成长。
“On the plaintiff side, it's a lot of emotion, a lot of times, because this is someone that feels like they've been wronged — they've been treated differently — on the basis of their race, their sex, their age, their gender, whatever,” Stallworth said. “Sometimes you get a really good result of potentially, if used correctly, life-changing money for some people. You're able to take something that was a really bad event that happened in their life that they’d probably rather forget about, and then get them some type of compensation — something that will help them push past that particular point in their life.”
他的正能量和愿意接手其他律师拒绝的案件，使他在客户眼中与众不同。 他曾代表一名黑人男子，在一场针对一家赌场的漫长案件中指控种族歧视和报复。 Overcome with gratitude, Stallworth’s client broke down crying when the resolution finally came down in his favor.
“He said, ‘This has just been so stressful for me and my family. 我觉得我失去了我失去了我在这个公司工作了15年的生计。 是你让我来的。 你一直陪着我，我很感激。 上帝保佑。’” 
His client’s emotional reaction touched Stallworth deeply.
“That was something right there,” Stallworth said. “That was coming from his soul, so that meant a lot. 这些年来，我有过很多这样的反应，我一直很感激。 I don't take that lightly for someone to put their emotions and their feelings on their sleeve like that.”
Nearly two decades later, Stallworth remains dedicated to the objective he established as a student at the 威尼斯人娱乐城 法学院 — increasing diversity within the legal profession.
杰克逊县律师协会（Jackson County Bar Association）是美国历史最悠久的非裔律师协会之一。斯托沃斯曾任该协会主席，他通过指导潜在的法律学生、为奖学金筹款和举办法律写作研讨会，积极参与社区丰富工作。 知道自己可能为别人的事业成功做出了贡献，这给斯托沃斯带来了无法估量的快乐。
“I've been able to stay in touch with potential law students that have gone on to become law students, and then gone on to become lawyers,” Stallworth said. “And that's been really cool to see.”