Spring 2026 Winner of the Pillars of Justice Scholarship

Amy Cornwell

Amy, a legal studies major at the University of Central Florida is the newest winner of our scholarship. Amy uses her essay to elaborate on the importance of compassion and how her time working as a clerk of court under various judges emphasized that importance. Congratulations, Amy!

Read Their Essay Here:

When I was younger, I thought that judges were scary. You see Judge Judy on court T.V. and you think, “Wow, I hope I never have to go there.” I thought about this so so much that I feared getting in trouble - I would always sit straight and do as I was told, praying that I would not end up on the big screen battling it out in court. Honestly, where I am from, it isn’t too outlandish for me to have feared the law. I was born and raised in Palatka, Florida - home to a high volume of drug crimes and a place where you are more likely to be a victim of a violent crime than you are to win five dollars on a scratch off. I have seen my high school peers being drug out of class by police officers for carrying weapons on campus and I sat there wondering, “What happens now?”

Your initial hope is that they are learning their lesson - sitting in a jail cell thinking about what they did. That’s what my parents would tell me - that they are getting what they bargained for. But when you take a step back and truly consider how they ended up this way, your mind should change. Imagine looking at a prison from a birdseye perspective - what do you see? You most likely will have an answer like the following: it looks sad, lonely, scary, helpless. Hopefully, you start to think deeper about why they are there. Maybe they were smuggling drugs to financially support their family. Maybe they were practicing their right to self defense, but all the police could see was that they assaulted somebody. Maybe they have had a traumatic upbringing and did not even realize what they did was wrong because it is all they have ever known. Maybe this was their cry for help.

This is where you pray that the justice system will step in and truly help these people. As I grew older, my perspective on crime began to change to a more compassionate stance. When I turned 18, I got a job working for the Clerk of Court - and was a court clerk primarily for the Family Law and Misdemeanor Departments. I was completely exposed to the justice system and to the people who needed it most - broken families and people who have committed petty crimes and need interference before the problem thickens. I worked with several judges over the span of a year and a half and have seen the justice system unfold before my eyes. One thing remained true through my entire time there - the judges just want to help.

Initially, I was shocked. I was expecting gavels banging and attorneys screaming objections like you see in Law and Order. I was not expecting a judge to be so heartwarming to career criminals. Sometimes, the same few people went through the system so many times that the judge remembered them and called them by their first name. I had the pleasure of working as a clerk for Judge Alicia Washington in Putnam County. She was a Family Law Judge, now Felony Judge, and I saw her in action in both capacities. She was strong, quick-witted, and a little hard on the outside. Underneath was a mother. She was a leader in every sense of the word, and did not hesitate to tell you exactly what you needed to hear, even if it was not what you wanted to hear. She did this with every case she presided over - both in Family Law and Felony. She led with honesty and truth, fairness and respect.

I, then, started working with Judge Anne Marie Gennusa in Putnam County in the Misdemeanor Division. Again, another strong woman on the bench with strong attributes - impartiality, integrity, and wisdom. Another pleasant surprise, which led to my hunger for the legal field. Concluding my time working with the Clerk of Court, I worked with roughly ten judges, which taught me a lot about how to lead with fairness. I learned what to do, what not to do, and everything in between.

Above all, the judges that stood out the most to me had one prominent quality that cannot be taught in law school - compassion. The most important characteristic of all. Someone who chooses to see the good in people when they have been told for years that there is none left. Someone who has the humility to take a step down and assess why these people made the decisions they did, and assess how they can fairly handle the case while getting people the help they need and deserve. I have seen judges choose to give community service over jail time to give someone a second chance. I have seen judges choose to sentence criminals to mental health counseling as a part of their probation to try and rehabilitate them back into society after their crimes. I have seen judges choose a ‘step-up’ parenting plan, that allows mothers and fathers to slowly regain custody and timesharing of their children. These judges, that I now am honored to call friends, have taught me an important lesson - the best thing you can be is a human being helping human beings. The best quality to have is compassion.