Presented in memory of Paul O’Dwyer, a native of County Mayo who served in the New York City Council and was a nationally recognized civil rights leader and defender of the Irish cause in the U.S.

Frank Schorn, a Brooklyn native, is a founder and vice chair of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. For more than three decades, he has worked as an immigration advocate and litigator.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he was part of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement that helped create major immigration law reform for the new Irish in America. He helped craft and suggest legislative and regulatory language with the diversity visa program, as well as the Irish Peace Process (Q-2) visa program.

Throughout his career, he has practiced immigration law at several NYC non-profit leaders in the immigration field, as well as by a prominent immigration firm in New York.

For the past decade, he has been a full-time educator with the NYC Department of Education, teaching math as a foreign language, advocating on behalf of his students and their families. At present, he teaches at I.S. 318, a middle school in East Williamsburg.

A lifelong resident of Glendale, Schorn graduated from Archbishop Molloy H.S., Briarwood, Fordham University and Fordham Law School.

When advised that he was to receive this year’s Paul O’Dwyer Memorial Award, he stated, “I’m shocked and humbled at receiving such an honor. Paul O’Dwyer fought for the underdog, and he tirelessly fought for justice, no matter what. I’ve always tried to follow Paul O’Dwyer’s life example. My work with Emerald Isle and now teaching young people is further evidence that Paul’s legacy lives on.”