Rodin Fellows 26-27
Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Joyce Harduvel, Zak Cheikho, and Trinity Rogers are the 2026-27 Rodin Fellows.
A new era of advocates
Meet the 2026-2027 Rodin Fellows
The Curt and Linda Rodin Center for Social Justice fellowship program supports students as they develop the skills needed to work with underserved individuals and communities through litigation, legislative and policy reform, and other forms of advocacy. The newest cohort of Rodin fellows are leaders in community service, social justice advocacy, and public interest law. Meet the 2026-2027 Rodin Fellows.
Joyce Harduvel plans to combine her social work background and her law degree to advocate for students.
Joyce Harduvel, LCSW
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Pronouns: she/her
Why did you want to become a lawyer?
As a school social worker on Chicago’s South Side, I found that my favorite part of my job was advocating for my students and their families. From criminal charges and landlord disputes to police abuse and civil rights issues, I was constantly bumping up against the limits of a social worker’s advocacy abilities.
Why did you choose Loyola for law school?
I was familiar with Loyola’s Stand Up for Each Other (SUFEO) advocacy program and used it as a resource when I was a school social worker. Because I knew that I wanted to combine my social work background with my law degree, I was looking for a school that reflected my values and provided me with the coursework and hands-on opportunities to learn about the areas of the law that interest me the most. Loyola’s unique weekend program allows me to continue the work I am passionate about uninterrupted while accessing high-quality education in public interest law.
“As a school social worker on Chicago’s South Side, I found that my favorite part of my job was advocating for my students and their families.”
What experiences led you to become a Rodin Fellow?
My career thus far has been grounded in my deep commitment to the South Side of Chicago, where I was born and raised. That love for my community is also what propelled me to law school, and I look forward to the opportunity to help craft law school events that bring that perspective and center social justice legal work.
Trinity Rogers wants to become a criminal defense lawyer focused on death penalty cases and post-conviction work.
Trinity Rogers
Hometown: New Orleans
Pronouns: she/they
Why did you want to become a lawyer?
I think from a young age I have always wanted to be an advocate. With five older siblings, I definitely had my fair share of arguments with them, but outside of our family sphere, they were always advocating for me. I think that helped instill the urge to advocate for other people as I grew up.
Also, growing up in New Orleans, in the Deep South, the impacts of incarceration are hard to ignore. Especially as a Black person, seeing how frequently Black people were discarded in a prison or jail had a huge impact on how I understood justice and fairness. I was surrounded by people I knew and loved being discarded by a system that was created to work against us, and that inspired me to change it, to create something better for the people I love.
Which areas of the law are you most passionate about?
I want to become a criminal defense lawyer, specifically focusing on death penalty cases and post-conviction work. This summer I will be working in my hometown of New Orleans at the Capital Appeals Project, which feels very full circle.
“I have always enjoyed learning about and engaging in different forms of advocacy, and the Rodin Fellowship allows me to continue to do that.”
What experiences led you to become a Rodin Fellow?
My degree is in Peace and Justice, which allowed me to study how different communities across the world treat peace and justice—whether they can align, whether they are at odds—and advocacy plays a huge role in that. I have always enjoyed learning about and engaging in different forms of advocacy, and the Rodin Fellowship allows me to continue to do that.
Before law school, Ashvini Kartik-Narayan was a paralegal and worked with low-income homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
Ashvini Kartik-Narayan
Hometown: Aurora, IL
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Why did you choose Loyola for law school?
I chose Loyola because of its strong clinical programs, particularly the Health Justice Project and SUFEO. I have been passionate about public benefits, in particular, for a very long time.
Before law school, I was a paralegal and worked with low-income homeowners at risk of foreclosure. Prior to that, I was a first-grade teacher at Chicago Public Schools. Both of these experiences showed me how a variety of public and private systems work in tandem to exhaust low-income people, making the process of getting the resources you need and deserve extremely difficult.
“I chose Loyola because of its strong clinical programs, particularly the Health Justice Project and SUFEO.”
Which areas of the law are you most passionate about?
Public benefits and food assistance. In my senior year of college, I completed a year-long thesis project on the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food assistance program in Chicago. I was able to interview 15 Chicago mothers on their experience with the program to understand how they were impacted by a now-eliminated colored coupon system that gave a different set of coupons to enrollees on the South and West Sides versus the North Side. This experience made me interested in the bureaucratic obstacles that low-income individuals face in obtaining and maintaining benefits, the tactics state agencies use to discourage and humiliate people who seek benefits, and the unique level of surveillance and control that the state imposes on low-income people when they collect data in exchange for access to food.
What experiences led you to become a Rodin Fellow?
In law school, I have been lucky to participate in two clinics focused on providing free legal services to people in the greater Chicago area: the Health Justice Project and SUFEO. Both of these experiences, combined with my experiences prior to law school, made me want to continue working with legal services advocates within the law school to promote programming that will encourage more students to pursue public interest law and serve our community.
Zak Cheikho is interested in “fighting for justice for the many rather than for privileges for the few.”
Zak Cheikho
Hometown: Denver, CO, and Beirut, Lebanon
Pronouns: he/him
Which areas of the law are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about understanding this system’s constitutional foundations and the areas of law that demonstrate the current order’s overriding logic of self-reproduction.
What are you most excited about working on as a Rodin Fellow?
In an age where the rule of law stands in question (after itself facing decades of substantive critique), I believe that law students, professors, and practitioners alike must take a more active stance in fighting for justice for the many rather than for privileges for the few. Understanding this necessity, I hope to use my position as a Rodin Fellow to deepen our conception of movement lawyering.
“It is a tremendous privilege to study the law.”
Why did you want to become a lawyer?
The study of the law can be compared to a doctor’s study of the human body. Just as the doctor’s understanding of the body’s complexities allows for an accurate patient diagnosis, so can a lawyer’s understanding of the state’s complexities allow for more accurate diagnosis of its ills. It is a tremendous privilege to study the law. After all, the first step to changing any system is understanding it. As a law student, Rodin Fellow, and future attorney, I hope to use this knowledge to fight, educate, and understand our pathway to a more just world.
The Curt and Linda Rodin Center for Social Justice fellowship program supports students as they develop the skills needed to work with underserved individuals and communities through litigation, legislative and policy reform, and other forms of advocacy. The newest cohort of Rodin fellows are leaders in community service, social justice advocacy, and public interest law. Meet the 2026-2027 Rodin Fellows.
Joyce Harduvel, LCSW
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Pronouns: she/her
Why did you want to become a lawyer?
As a school social worker on Chicago’s South Side, I found that my favorite part of my job was advocating for my students and their families. From criminal charges and landlord disputes to police abuse and civil rights issues, I was constantly bumping up against the limits of a social worker’s advocacy abilities.
Why did you choose Loyola for law school?
I was familiar with Loyola’s Stand Up for Each Other (SUFEO) advocacy program and used it as a resource when I was a school social worker. Because I knew that I wanted to combine my social work background with my law degree, I was looking for a school that reflected my values and provided me with the coursework and hands-on opportunities to learn about the areas of the law that interest me the most. Loyola’s unique weekend program allows me to continue the work I am passionate about uninterrupted while accessing high-quality education in public interest law.
What experiences led you to become a Rodin Fellow?
My career thus far has been grounded in my deep commitment to the South Side of Chicago, where I was born and raised. That love for my community is also what propelled me to law school, and I look forward to the opportunity to help craft law school events that bring that perspective and center social justice legal work.
Trinity Rogers
Hometown: New Orleans
Pronouns: she/they
Why did you want to become a lawyer?
I think from a young age I have always wanted to be an advocate. With five older siblings, I definitely had my fair share of arguments with them, but outside of our family sphere, they were always advocating for me. I think that helped instill the urge to advocate for other people as I grew up.
Also, growing up in New Orleans, in the Deep South, the impacts of incarceration are hard to ignore. Especially as a Black person, seeing how frequently Black people were discarded in a prison or jail had a huge impact on how I understood justice and fairness. I was surrounded by people I knew and loved being discarded by a system that was created to work against us, and that inspired me to change it, to create something better for the people I love.
Which areas of the law are you most passionate about?
I want to become a criminal defense lawyer, specifically focusing on death penalty cases and post-conviction work. This summer I will be working in my hometown of New Orleans at the Capital Appeals Project, which feels very full circle.
What experiences led you to become a Rodin Fellow?
My degree is in Peace and Justice, which allowed me to study how different communities across the world treat peace and justice—whether they can align, whether they are at odds—and advocacy plays a huge role in that. I have always enjoyed learning about and engaging in different forms of advocacy, and the Rodin Fellowship allows me to continue to do that.
Ashvini Kartik-Narayan
Hometown: Aurora, IL
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Why did you choose Loyola for law school?
I chose Loyola because of its strong clinical programs, particularly the Health Justice Project and SUFEO. I have been passionate about public benefits, in particular, for a very long time.
Before law school, I was a paralegal and worked with low-income homeowners at risk of foreclosure. Prior to that, I was a first-grade teacher at Chicago Public Schools. Both of these experiences showed me how a variety of public and private systems work in tandem to exhaust low-income people, making the process of getting the resources you need and deserve extremely difficult.
Which areas of the law are you most passionate about?
Public benefits and food assistance. In my senior year of college, I completed a year-long thesis project on the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food assistance program in Chicago. I was able to interview 15 Chicago mothers on their experience with the program to understand how they were impacted by a now-eliminated colored coupon system that gave a different set of coupons to enrollees on the South and West Sides versus the North Side. This experience made me interested in the bureaucratic obstacles that low-income individuals face in obtaining and maintaining benefits, the tactics state agencies use to discourage and humiliate people who seek benefits, and the unique level of surveillance and control that the state imposes on low-income people when they collect data in exchange for access to food.
What experiences led you to become a Rodin Fellow?
In law school, I have been lucky to participate in two clinics focused on providing free legal services to people in the greater Chicago area: the Health Justice Project and SUFEO. Both of these experiences, combined with my experiences prior to law school, made me want to continue working with legal services advocates within the law school to promote programming that will encourage more students to pursue public interest law and serve our community.
Zak Cheikho
Hometown: Denver, CO, and Beirut, Lebanon
Pronouns: he/him
Which areas of the law are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about understanding this system’s constitutional foundations and the areas of law that demonstrate the current order’s overriding logic of self-reproduction.
What are you most excited about working on as a Rodin Fellow?
In an age where the rule of law stands in question (after itself facing decades of substantive critique), I believe that law students, professors, and practitioners alike must take a more active stance in fighting for justice for the many rather than for privileges for the few. Understanding this necessity, I hope to use my position as a Rodin Fellow to deepen our conception of movement lawyering.
Why did you want to become a lawyer?
The study of the law can be compared to a doctor’s study of the human body. Just as the doctor’s understanding of the body’s complexities allows for an accurate patient diagnosis, so can a lawyer’s understanding of the state’s complexities allow for more accurate diagnosis of its ills. It is a tremendous privilege to study the law. After all, the first step to changing any system is understanding it. As a law student, Rodin Fellow, and future attorney, I hope to use this knowledge to fight, educate, and understand our pathway to a more just world.