Rainbow native named Diversity Scholar

SAN FRANCISCO — Warren Ko, who was raised in Rainbow, was one of four law school students named a 2008 Latham & Watkins Diversity Scholar last week.

This is the third consecutive year the San Francisco law firm has awarded $10,000 scholarships to US law school students.

Ko is the son of immigrant parents from China and is the first person in his family to attend college. He was raised by his father, a single parent, on an ostrich farm in rural Rainbow and is now a student at University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) pursuing a global legal career.

With unique insights into the Asian-American immigration experience, Ko can relate to the challenges of assimilation and advancement.

As an undergraduate at Stanford University, from which Ko graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and a minor in Chinese, he assisted Professor Carolyn Wong with research for her book “Lobbying for Inclusion: Rights Politics and the Making of Immigration Policy.”

As a law student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, he volunteers his time with the Workers’ Rights Clinic and Community Legal Outreach.

Additionally, in the fall of 2002, Ko was awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship, a program initially funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote academic excellence and to provide an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant financial need to reach their highest potential.