Elijah DeVaughn is a JD candidate at Yale Law School. He graduated from Harvard College in 2021, where he studied History and Literature, African American Studies, and Spanish. At Harvard, Elijah won the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize, the university’s award for outstanding scholarly work in the completion of a senior thesis and was awarded the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships.

In 2023, Elijah earned an MPhil in History at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. After his studies, he served as a Presidential Speechwriter to the 46th President of the United States Joe Biden. Hired at the age of twenty-three, he was one of the youngest presidential speechwriters in American history.

Elijah has a deep interest in history, constitutional law, and civil rights. As an aspiring law professor and civil rights lawyer, he hopes to use his time in law school to learn more about how scholarship, legal advocacy, and storytelling can be used to fight for the disregarded, disenfranchised, and condemned.

Elijah hails from Compton, California in South Los Angeles, a place his family has called home for generations. He loves singing, reading, attending church, and hanging out with friends.