Malachi Zarahn ’28 becomes first W&L student selected for UVA’s Roadmap Scholars Initiative Malachi Zarahn ’28 is the first W&L student selected for a two-year program designed to help students chart their path into the legal profession.

By Kelsey Goodwin
June 26, 2026

When Lakeland, Florida, native Malachi Zarahn ’28 was in fifth grade, he sat at the kitchen table with his grandparents and helped them study for the U.S. citizenship test. His grandparents had immigrated from Brazil and spoke Portuguese, but the couple had to take the test in English since a Portuguese version of the test isn’t offered and they did not meet the age and residency requirements for an exemption to take the test in Spanish. Zarahn looks back on the experience of guiding them through the questions and encouraging them as they completed the process as one of his most formative.

“Someone told me at the time, ‘You should be an immigration lawyer,’” Zarahn recalls. “I didn’t even know what that was, but ever since, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.”

Now a rising junior majoring in English and politics with a minor in creative writing, Zarahn is spending this summer as the first W&L student selected for the University of Virginia’s Roadmap Scholars Initiative, a two-year program launched in 2022 to build a pipeline into the legal profession for undergraduate students who, in the program’s own words, “lack the resources and networks” to pursue that path at the highest level. The initiative gives strong preference to first-generation college students, students with limited financial resources and students who lack access to opportunities to learn about the law school admissions process and the legal profession. Each year, roughly a dozen students are chosen as Roadmap Scholars through a competitive application and interview process open to anyone completing their sophomore year of college at any U.S. college.

This summer, Zarahn is on UVA’s campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, for three weeks, with room, board, travel and a $3,000 stipend all provided through the program. The cohort is taking a mock law school class, sitting for a baseline LSAT and making visits to a range of legal settings such as public interest firms, corporate law offices and other branches of legal practice to help program participants start forming a picture of what kind of law might best suit them.

“The idea is to get a grasp on the landscape before we have to make decisions,” Zarahn says.

He notes that large law firms are now extending 1L summer internship offers earlier, as early as October of a student’s first year of law school.

“You get to campus, you have eight weeks, and you have to decide what kind of law you’re going to pursue for your summer internship, which is how you get your return offer,” he says. “The window to figure things out has gotten a lot shorter.”

The Roadmap Scholars Initiative is built to help students get ahead of that timeline. After the first summer, scholars return to their home institutions while UVA funds an LSAT prep course and the program director holds monthly check-ins with the cohort. The following summer, scholars return to Charlottesville for a week-long application boot camp before moving into funded legal internships at firms, government agencies and nonprofits across the country. As they enter their third year, program staff help with law school applications, personal statements and resumes and connect the scholars with Roadmap alumni who serve as mentors.

Zarahn values the program’s continued support.

“They’re here to help wherever we go,” he says. “Even if we take a gap year or two, we’re still part of the cohort.”

After his Roadmap Scholar experience concludes, Zarahn will head to Gastonia, North Carolina, for a six-week internship at the Gaston County Drug Recovery Court, a position funded through a Johnson Opportunity Grant, where he will be working directly with a judge on intake paperwork for new program participants and observing the court’s proceedings firsthand. Zarahn says this experience feels like a natural extension of his Roadmap Scholars experience in terms of career shadowing and preparation.

“I’ve really thought about becoming a judge one day,” he says. “This opportunity seemed to have some hands-on shadowing, and I just wanted to do something that was impactful and in the legal world.”

Zarahn’s campus involvement began the summer before his first year, with his participation in the AIM Scholars program. Zarahn serves as secretary of the Student Judicial Council, is a co-chair of the Library Student Advisory Board and will be a community adviser in the third-year village next year as part of the university’s residential life staff. He is vice president of the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) program’s Tier 1 cohort and serves as dispatch chair for the Traveller Steering Committee, which oversees the university’s safe-ride system.

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