Charlotte Lanvers developed a sensitivity at an early age to the challenges people with disabilities face; as a toddler, she was diagnosed with a speech impediment.

"I think my early experience with disability, and feeling 'different,' heightened my awareness of how people with disabilities are sometimes treated differently or ignored," Lanvers said.

After she graduates in May from Cornell Law School, Lanvers will pursue a lifelong ambition of disability advocacy by participating in a legal battle in California on behalf of public school students with diabetes. Her work will be supported by a Skadden Fellowship, which she was awarded earlier this year.

Established in 1988 by the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP, the Skadden Fellowship Foundation supports students who have shown exceptional promise in public interest law. Lanvers was one of 30 students from various schools to receive the award this year.

Lanvers will be working for two years at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) in Berkeley, Calif., a nonprofit law and policy center, on a class-action lawsuit against the California school system on behalf of children with diabetes.

The suit alleges that school districts do not provide enough trained school personnel to monitor the students' diabetes during the day, or in certain cases, to administer insulin during an emergency. DREDF argues that such lay people as teachers and administrators should be allowed to perform these services, as opposed to only school nurses, many of whom split their time among several schools.

Lanvers became familiar with the lawsuit during her first summer of law school, when she interned at the DREDF. During her fellowship, Lanvers plans to assist in day-to-day aspects of the litigation for as long as it persists.

If the case settles before she begins her fellowship, she will help implement the terms of the settlement. She will also do some direct service work with families and students in underserved areas who may not be receiving the accommodations to which they are entitled.

Though not a diabetic herself, Lanvers sees a spectrum of disabilities in a similar light. As a person who struggled through the public school system with a speech disability, she feels a connection to others with physical and emotional disabilities.

"I was aware of how kids with disabilities were treated at school, and how at times the school did not sufficiently maximize the kids' ability to learn, and also did not make sure they didn't feel stigmatized as a result of their disability," Lanvers said.

Lanvers grew up in Park City, Utah, and graduated from Princeton University in 2004. In college she served on the Undergraduate Committee for Disability Issues and was co-president of the Association for Disability Awareness and Advocacy.

As a Cornell law student, Lanvers serves as the school's liaison to the Cornell Union for Disabilities Awareness. For three semesters she worked at Cornell's Legal Aid Clinic, which provides free client services for civil cases, including Medicaid, Social Security and other public interest issues.

"She clearly has a strong dedication to public interest cases, particularly in the disability area," says Barry Strom, Cornell clinical professor of law, who supervised Lanvers when she worked at Legal Aid, noting that she handled several disability cases and some unemployment and divorce cases. He called Lanvers an "excellent choice" for the Skadden Fellowship.

"She works really well with clients and has very strong interpersonal skills," Strom said.