Mailelizabeth Gillis Named First-Ever SJSU Newman Civic Fellow
Mailelizabeth Gillis, ’25 Justice Studies, is the first Spartan to be named a Newman Civic Fellow. Photo courtesy of Mailelizabeth Gillis.
This is the second in a series of stories celebrating the Class of 2025. Join us in celebrating the hard work, dedication and achievements of graduating Spartans.
When Mailelizabeth Gillis, ’25, Justice Studies, called her grandfather in Redding, Calif., to share that she had been selected as the first-ever Spartan to receive the Newman Civic Fellowship, a year-long public service program for student leaders, she told him how surprised she was to find that SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson had nominated her for the honor.
Throughout the fellowship year, Newman Civic Fellows attend ongoing virtual events focused on professional development, connect to a nationwide network of engaged student leaders and attend an annual in-person Convening of Fellows supported by The Allstate Foundation. As part of the program, Gillis was assigned a mentor, SJSU Political Science Department Chair Garrick Percival.
“I told my grandfather, ‘I didn’t really do anything for this,’” she recalls. “And he said, ‘You’ve done an insane amount of things to be in a place where something like this can ‘fall in your lap.’”
Her grandfather was right: Gillis’ commitment to public service started years before arriving at San José State. A 2020 high school graduate, her introduction to higher education was entirely online, an experience made more challenging by extenuating circumstances in her personal life. Accustomed to being a high achiever, Gillis’ confidence suffered, and her grades plummeted during those first several months, making her question her path in life. The combination of poor grades, the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges outside of her control made her feel as if she had hit rock bottom. She reached out to a guidance counselor at her community college, who offered her the chance to start again.
“When you’re in a very low place, it’s very difficult to ask for help,” Gillis explains. “My first year of college felt world-ending to me personally, and [my success as a student was] very strongly tied to my identity as well. I wondered, where can I go in life if I can’t be successful in education? I had never struggled that way before, so when I was provided the wonderful opportunity to clear my transcript, it provided a clean slate.”
Gillis never forgot the relief of getting a second chance.
Discovering a passion for helping others
Left to right: Record Clearance Project Director Peggy Stevenson, RCP student Mariam Roshdy, ’25 Justice Studies, and Mailelizabeth Gillis. Photo courtesy of Everett Glynn.
Originally an accounting major, Gillis took a chance on an introduction to criminal justice administration course, and her world expanded. When her Shasta Community College Justice Studies Instructor Craig Carmena, ’91 Human Resource Administration, encouraged her to get involved in service organizations like Students Overcoming and Alleviating Recidivism (SOAR), a club dedicated to supporting students impacted by the criminal justice system, she realized how powerful it felt to provide resources and education to folks whose lives had been adversely affected by the criminal justice system.
The more involved she became in her community, the more Gillis wanted to do. During her year as an intern for the Shasta County District Attorney’s office, she supported victim advocacy and community education by advocating for domestic violence awareness by gathering local victimization statistics and resources to share with the public by speaking at local college football games. She also created domestic violence resource guides that the office, as well as SOAR volunteers, distributed at games.
When she shared her hopes of becoming the first attorney in her family with her mentor Carmena, he told her about the Record Clearance Project at his alma mater.
“The Record Clearance Project is the only undergraduate law clinic in the country,” she says. “The astounding work that they do, on a very successful and organized level, is what drew me to San José State.”
Founded at SJSU in 2008, the Record Clearance Project (RCP) is a program that trains undergraduate students to support justice-impacted individuals seeking record expungement. Taught as a series of Justice Studies courses by Lecturer Margaret “Peggy” Stevenson, the RCP offers mutually beneficial services, as clients can receive free legal advice from students under the supervision of an attorney while the students gain hands-on experience interviewing and supporting potential clients.
As part of the expungement process, students like Gillis learn to interview prospective clients, document their conviction histories and the institutional obstacles they’ve had to overcome. The RCP program trains students to review their clients’ histories, document their steps toward rehabilitation and help them determine how and when to proceed with their expungement processes. Gillis says the experience of working with RCP clients has deepened her sense of empathy.
“There’s no way to interact with clients, hear their stories, see their body language, listen to their emotion and the way they interact with life in general with you as a person of ‘authority’ in the legal system and not feel empathy — you can’t see the impact of that trauma and remain the same,” she says. “There’s a significant amount of stigma and shame regarding having a conviction history that completely changes one’s identity. Many of our clients are scared of us or embarrassed to work with us, talking about their past or histories.”
She remembers feeling her own version of stigma and embarrassment after failing her first year of college, adding that “while there are completely different levels of privilege there, for me, education was my world. I felt like I was going to give up on my life.”
As an RCP intern she says “when you see someone who has been holding on to that weight and trauma for, say, 30 years, it’s such an amazing opportunity to be able to provide them with the chance to breathe life back into themselves. When you see the impact you’re making on people’s lives, it has an impact on yours.”
Next steps
When Justice Studies Department Chair Paul Knepper first learned about the Newman Civic Fellowship, he consulted with fellow Justice Studies faculty members before nominating Gillis.
“Maile displays exceptional skills in advocating for Record Clearance Project clients, and this derives from the deep, sincere commitment to service that began in her youth,” he says. “She decided on SJSU because she truly wants to work with people in the community and make the world a better place.”
Fellows are also invited to apply for select scholarships and research opportunities. After attending the Newman conference in Chicago, Gillis was invited to speak at the University of Houston, where she shared the impact of the Record Clearance Project. In April, she attended the Campus Compact conference with Melinda Jackson, dean of Undergraduate Studies and Political Science Professor.
Her goal is to demonstrate SJSU’s model for record clearance and pitch ways to duplicate these efforts at other universities nationwide.
“What’s impressive is the work being completed at the RCP, and on a large scale, at absolutely no cost to the public,” she says. “RCP saves our local and state government a significant amount of money while impacting a lot of people. If we could replicate this program elsewhere in the country, the impact could be enormous.”
Perhaps it was this vision for a better world that Gillis’ grandfather heard on the phone when she called to share the news of her fellowship. Her desire to do everything in her power to help others is evidence enough that she has a bright future. Reflecting on her educational journey, she credits her community college and SJSU instructors who gave her the courage to keep going.
“I think my journey is a beautiful testimony of having faith in yourself and finding such a wonderful support system to remind you when you can’t remind yourself,” she says. “All of this has led me exactly where I was meant to be.”
SJSU commencement ceremonies take place May 21-23 at the Provident Credit Union Event Center. Graduates who have RSVPed are entitled to bring up to six guests for free; additional guest tickets are available for $20 each. Learn more about commencement.
