Two Students Named Rosenbloom Award Recipients

Third-year students Casey Crowley and Sophia Hernandez Tragesser are this year’s recipients of the University of Virginia School of Law’s Rosenbloom Award.

Given annually, the award was established by Daniel Rosenbloom ’54 to honor students with a strong academic record who have significantly enhanced the academic experience of other law students by volunteering support and assistance.

Crowley, of Boulder, Colorado, earned a bachelor’s in business administration and management from the University of Colorado and brought his love of the outdoors to UVA Law, where he has taught others to fly fish. He has served on the Journal of Law & Politics and participated in pro bono services and the State and Local Government Policy Clinic. He also worked as a research assistant for two professors, John C. Jeffries Jr. ’73 and Deborah Hellman.

“There are many ways that a student can contribute to the Law School community. Casey Crowley hits them all,” Jeffries said. “He is academically engaged and successful, very active in working for law reform and seems to be friends with everyone. Few students who have passed through these doors have done as much as Casey to make others happy.”

His fellow students praised his willingness to help them prepare for exams, written papers, arguments and testimony, and even job interviews.

“Sometimes I wonder if he remembers that we are all competing on a curve,” said Raj Vasisht ’24, who was a section-mate during their first year. “Any success I’ve had on my own assignments is directly credited to the conversations I have with Casey about content, argument structure, style and his past experience with my current professors.”

Another student, Audrey Payne ’24, said Crowley “dropped everything” to help her and her moot court partner prepare for the rounds of competition.

After graduation, Crowley plans to clerk for Judge Michael Brennan on the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and U.S. Judge Daniel Domenico ’00 of the District of Colorado in Denver.

Ironically, Crowley said he struggled with self-doubt and personal setbacks his first semester of law school.

“One of the most defining moments of my time at UVA Law was having a really close friend in my section, Shannon Bader, reach out to me and ask if I was OK, and then going to our study group and being lifted up by all my friends,” Crowley said. “I don’t think I could have recovered so well if it wasn’t for them.”

According to Bader and others, Crowley has continued to organize and lead study sessions since then.

“I don’t think I could have made it through some of the challenges of law school without [Crowley],” Bader said.

Hernandez Tragesser, of Carmel, Indiana, earned a bachelor’s in history from St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota. But she has known since the third grade that she wanted to be a lawyer. In fifth grade, she hung out her own shingle on the playground, helping classmates resolve conflicts. By sixth grade, she tried taking a practice LSAT.

Within a week of her arrival at UVA Law, she saw a classmate suffering from anxiety and questioning his choice to go to law school. She decided then that she could be both academically driven and attentive to the needs of others around her.

“There was someone having a rough day at least once a week,” she said. “I learned very quickly in 1L that choosing to help the friend every single time is the better choice for both fulfilling my own life and serving those around me.”

She became a Peer Advisor for LL.M. students, who often hail from abroad, after getting to know several of them and becoming familiar with the common challenges they faced in a new place.

Classmate Abigail Hauer ’24 nominated Hernandez Tragesser with the support of 48 more UVA Law students who signed onto the letter. The signatories noted her willingness to use her mock trial skills to help other classmates prepare for their trial advocacy assignments, her leadership on the Latin American Law Organization executive board and the Virginia Tax Review, and her willingness to share her class notes — even retyping her handwritten Torts notes for a classmate who was dealing with a broken wrist.

She also organized gift cards or groceries for classmates facing personal challenges — including three childbirths and one family death — and would host a standing Wednesday social affair for classmates, often cooking Puerto Rican food for those who joined.

She did all this as a dual-degree enrollee working on a master’s in history in addition to her J.D.

“Sophia Hernandez Tragesser is arguably the most selfless member of the Class of 2024,” Hauer wrote in her nomination letter. “Whether it be in an academic, professional, or personal capacity, Sophia is always the first person to offer help to her classmates.”

After graduation, Hernandez Tragesser will work in the U.S. Navy’s general counsel’s office at the Military Sealift Command in Norfolk, Virginia.