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Grit is not Enough
Are you gritty? Do you persevere above all obstacles to reach your goal? Chances are, if you are heading to law school, the answer is yes. We are so full of grit, y’all! Grit (perseverance and passion) is a quality characteristic–and students of color, living in poverty have it by the boatload. Yet, we place too heavy a burden on students of color when we focus on grit as the sole reason of why they succeed. Because when we only focus on the individual, we take away the responsibility schools and other systems of power have to help our communities. And grit isn’t enough for students to overcome those barriers.…
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Pre-Law Probs: Mastering Your Personal Statement
When I tell you that I never prepared and planned harder for my law school application than anything else in my life I am not joking. I was serious about getting admitted and knew I needed as much preparation and help as possible. The biggest obstacle for me was my personal statement. I knew I had a lot of convincing to do as my LSAT score was very average. So I did things I never, ever did with my writing (that in retrospect should have been a habit lol). I had multiple friends give edits and suggestions. I went to the writing center–hand to god, I had never stepped foot…
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Sidebar: Is the World Ending? asking for a friend.
Wow. What a weird month. I have family in Tampa and prayed to Cristo Negro that they’d be safe. Thankfully they made it through, but then the horror in Mexico City, then more hurricanes–it’s too much. On top of all the political garbage… I avoid a lot of news and politics now because I know I can’t consume this horror in such a big scale. It’s too much. But I’m doing what little I can to help with DACA and the hurricanes aftermath. Ok, thankfully, not everything was horrible. Though, now that I think about it, it is kind of comical–E and I tried to celebrate the end of summer…
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Work With What You Got
This week the internet was down at my house and because I can’t get ready without background noise, I started playing my iTunes on my laptop (lol wut). A Laura Pausini song came on and suddenly summer 06 came flashing back. That summer, I took the June LSAT and spent the rest of time researching law schools and starting my personal statements. Our house had no AC so the family computer was in the basement so that we wouldn’t sweat to death while using the hot ass computer. It was a really out of date desktop–so out of date that the screen lagged behind the keyboard. Like, I would write…
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Open Letter to “Mediocre” Latinx Students: Go Where You’re Not Wanted
Yesterday, I saw the article on WaPo about the University of Maryland professor who accidentally sent an email to his mock trial class that included a coach’s (the prof’s daughter) remarks on the students who had tried out and her concern about whether or not to include the Latino students for the sake of diversity even though she thought they all performed poorly and that the best one was “mediocre.” I read that article and it was gut-wrenching. So often students of color have a sense that some professors, admins, or people in power within academia don’t support us because they have a preconception of our “inferior” capabilities, but rarely…
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Pre-law Prep: Making the Most of your Senior Year
Since my anniversary is at the end of the month, my husband and I always reminisce about the beginning of our senior year, when we began dating. One of the things I remember was him sitting by my side as I hit send on most of my law school applications (aww! Lol). But seriously, I then started thinking about that time in my life and realized just how hectic the first months of senior year were because of those law school applications. If you’re about to embark in your senior year and/or are getting ready to apply within these next few months, I wish you luck! It’s so stressful! Exciting!…
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There’s No Such Thing As Reverse Racism
Today, I woke up to the news that this administration is planning to investigate colleges that discriminate against White people. Specifically, they are planning to attack affirmative action programs. As an advocate for increased access to education in the Latinx community, campaigns like this make me want to scream. Anyone who is genuine about education and increased access knows that AA programs do not harm people in power. In fact, and please repeat this until you can’t say it anymore, white women have benefited the most from affirmative action. Affirmative action programs and policies gave me a spot in schools and situations where I likely would have been overlooked in…
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Breaking Barriers: Overcoming the 1L Emotional Roller Coaster
By now, I’m sure most of you have heard or read that super odd article by David Brooks. He tried to explain that the rich and powerful maintain a culture of separatism from other socioeconomic brackets in an effort to keep others from joining their ranks. A valid point, followed by the most asinine example of a friend too stupid to pick out sandwiches, apparently. I definitely side-eyed the hell out of that example, but I have to admit that he was right in that there’s a culture and code that is hard to break into. If you’re about to enter into law school soon, I don’t want to scare…
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Summer Series: Reconnecting with your Purpose
Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we hear from Krystlen, a rising 2L from Florida, who is re-connecting with her community after feeling disconnected from her classmates during her 1L year at Hofstra: I always get asked what my plans are after law school, which is understandable, but absolutely absurd to me considering that a year ago,…
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Game Plan the Bar Exam
I am all about to-do lists and making action plans to get to your goal. If your goal is to pass the the bar this summer then how are you going to do that? I remember starting my Barbri course just days after graduation and just jumping into the content. Then I realized how I apparently didn’t remember anything from 1L year because I kept scoring SO low in torts and I was sure that this was a sign that I wouldn’t be able to pass. The truth is that bar studies is a long-form game because you have to study, memorize, and recall content in the certain way, so of course,…