Kozyak Summer Fellowship Fund

The Kozyak Summer Fellowship Fund (KSFF)  is a successor to the Kozyak Minority Mentoring Foundation (KMMF) and is now managed through the Miami Foundation.

For most of John Kozyak’s fifty-year legal career, he has been promoting mentoring, diversity, and inclusion for all Florida law students. His foundation hosted a large picnic for more than fifteen years and law students from all Florida law schools sent students, faculty, and alumni.  Subsequently, the foundation, John and many supporters hosted annual receptions for law student groups to help the students find mentors and support.  KMMF and now, KSFF, have provided $5,000 summer fellowships to outstanding law students attending a Florida law school and to Florida residents attending other law schools.  These are awarded to students who are academically and professionally driven, who have substantial financial need, and who wish to intern for a Judge, nonprofit or governmental agency during the summer. These are unpaid but important positions for developing the skills law students. In 2025,  thirteen fellowships were awarded to an amazing, diverse group of law students. Most of the recipients were first-generation law students and represented the richness of the diverse population in Florida and the large number of women attending law schools. Veterans,  people with disabilities, all nationalities, and the LGBTQ community are encouraged to apply and engage in the mentoring opportunities. 

The fund collaborates with voluntary bar associations to host mentoring receptions in South Florida while John Kozyak and other supporters devote substantial time helping students to succeed and find mentors.

 

John and his wife, Barbara Silverman, underwrite the receptions and some of the fellowships. Other supporters, including Invenio Wealth and Harley and Sherry Tropin, fund a student fellowship every year.  Hundreds of others are devoted to providing opportunities for Florida law students.