Summer Series: The Work Before Law School

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 Briana, an incoming 1L who describes her path to law school and what it took to get her to this new phase in her life.

Hi Ladies!

My name is Briana and I’m starting William S. Boyd School of Law in the fall. I’m a Cuban-American born and raised in Las Vegas, NV. Since a young age I was exposed to entrepreneurship and advocating for the Hispanic community. My family owned the very first Hispanic grocery store “bodega” in Las Vegas and my father has built the largest Hispanic real estate brokerage in the country. I have become no stranger to hard work, sacrifice, and drive.

The minute I started my undergraduate degree at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas I focused all my attention on graduating in the next 4 years. When I was 19, I was given the opportunity to intern at Senator Harry Reid’s office as the Foreclosure Mitigation Lead Intern. During my interview they told me I was under-qualified because I was only 19 years old and a freshman. However, I got the position and I was determined to prove I was more than capable no matter my age. Interning for Senator Reid was an unforgettable experience. I learned so much about immigration, housing and all the services offered to the community.

My junior year I joined a mentorship program called La Voz-Huellas. La Voz is an organization from Boyd Law School that represents the interests of the Latino Community at Boyd and the State of Nevada. They have a yearly program called Huellas that pairs attorneys, law students, undergraduate students, and high school students. It helped me network and really learn what I needed to do to get into law school plus I made great friendships. Without these friendships applying for law school would have sucked!!

I finally started studying for the LSAT at the end of my junior year and I realized there was no way I could study by myself. I joined an LSAT summer course thinking, “how hard can studying be??”  Well I was rudely awakened because studying was a TON of work!! I had never studied in my college career, getting A’s and B’s was natural to me. I ended up not finishing the course because I felt so overwhelmed.  I took a 3-week break and started private tutoring with the LSAT professor but this still wasn’t enough! I just wasn’t committing the way I needed to. Long story short I studied for about 8 months on and off and took the LSAT 3 times, which is the limit for a 2 year period.

The last LSAT I took was in February 2015 and the deadline for Boyd was March 15^th. So I was totally freaking out and thinking I wasn’t going to go to law school! But I once I received my score, I was able to add that to my letters of recommendation from past internships and professors, which resulted in Boyd offering me a full tuition scholarship, which I never expected. I accepted the scholarship and didn’t apply to any other schools.

My advice to undergraduates is to never give up and take every opportunity you can! Put yourself out there, network, and jump on those unpaid internships it will all be worth it in the end. You can also never start studying too early for the LSAT, so as to get a handle of what the exam entails. This test is not about how smart you are, but how dedicated you are to learning the strategies.

All in all it has been a journey graduating college in four years, working, interning, and getting accepted to law school. I’m so appreciative to have had all the opportunities presented to me and looking forward to taking the next big step

Hope you ladies have a great summer!