AKA,Mombasa alumni certainly know how to shine!

Former AKA,Mombasa student, Elias Okwara, a graduate of the Diploma Programme class of 2008 recently attended the 7th Annual John Marshall Law School National Diversity Moot Court competition and had great success. The competition had over 60 students representing 18 different universities from all over the country. Elias is currently pursuing a degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia in International Area Studies with a concentration in Justice and Human Rights.

The tournament was organized in a “scramble” format, so on the day Elias and his fellow Drexel students Ayrton, and Tynishia were assigned to 3 person teams (not with each other- with students they have never met before). Each competitor had to rotate through all the roles (on both sides of the case) in the preliminary round. It was a very challenging format and each of our students had at least 1 member on their three-person team with little-to-no mock trial experience.

Awards were given for the university whose top three members had the highest combined score. Drexel was a bit of a disadvantage because some schools sent as many as 9 competitors—so they had more scores with which to comprise the “top three.” Despite that fact, Elias, Ayrton, and Tynishia collectively were awarded the “Silver Award” and were the 3rd highest ranked team in the competition. All three of their scores made it possible for Drexel to win this award.

Speaker awards were also given for the preliminary rounds. Ayrton was the highest ranked speaker in the entire competition and came in first place individually. In addition to a trophy, Ayrton won a free Kaplan LSAT Test Prep course and $5,000 in scholarship money towards John Marshall Law School.

Elias and his two teammates were the highest ranked seed in the entire competition going in to elimination rounds. They advanced to the “Championship Round” which was presided over by real-life judges and law professors. In front of all the other competitors, Elias and his team put in a stellar performance. They handily won the competition and were named the overall best team. In addition, Elias had the ONLY set of all-perfect ballots in the entire competition, and they came in that final championship round. Elias won a free Kaplan LSAT Test Prep course and $15,000 in scholarship money towards John Marshall Law School.

Our sincere congratulations to Elias and his team on their performances.

For more information on Elias, please click here