-
Summer Series: The Prelaw Fun Before the Law School Storm
Our Summer Series is coming to a close! 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 Yadilsa, a soon to be law student who decided that rather than worry about the stress and hardship of law school–she’s going to enjoy life and made the most of her prelaw summer: When people ask me who I am, it can be difficult…
-
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,…
-
Summer Series: Breaking the Prison Pipeline
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 Crystal, a rising 3L from California, who describes the vital impact attorneys make in the lives of our Latinx youth: Growing up, my oldest brother, Christian, was in and out of juvenile detention centers. Among many other reasons, his experience is why I pursued law school. Even when I…
-
Summer Series: Fighting Against a Carceral State
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 Cynthia, a rising 2L at Stanford, who is spending her summer in the South defending those facing capital punishment: “It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged.” – Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting in…
-
Summer Series: Working Hard in Legal Aid
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 Karen, a rising 2L, whose internship in legal aid has strengthened her resolve to pursue a career in poverty law: I knew I wanted to do public interest work before I even knew what that meant. At first I thought about starting my own non-profit…
-
Is it Even an Emergency? Responding to Crisis During Bar Prep
You are a month away from the Bar Exam! I hope everything is going as smooth as possible. I was in an incredibly fortunate position to not have to work during bar prep and even without that added stress of finances, I was so overwhelmed with emotion, worry, and anxiety. Many of you may be feeling the same pressure (or will soon feel it as we get closer to the date). So, I wanted to talk about avoiding stress and situations that deter you from your goal. I have heard many stories of family “emergencies” that crop up during bar prep that distract someone from their studies and lead to…
-
Finding Mentor: Using This Summer to Find the Mentor You Need
If you’re a current law student by now you should have settled in nicely at your summer gig. It can be easy to lose focus in the day to day of assignments and deadlines of what your big goal for the summer should be–securing a job (or a job lead for next summer/semester). While that is the main goal, there is something else to work towards, especially if you’re breaking into the field, and that is finding a mentor that may help guide you in your budding career. How do you find a mentor?! That is the million dollar question. If you are me, a kind law professor takes pity…
-
Dichos de Mami that Got Me Through Law School
Seeing that mother’s day just passed (for most of Latin America) and many more celebrate this Sunday, I thought it would be great to share some of my mom’s favorite dichos, osea, sayings that helped me become a lawyer—even if I didn’t know it at the time and even if I’d never in a million years tell her this (haha she’s reading this right now, I’m sure 🙂 ). One. No se dice que, se dice mande. Etched into my brain from infancy is the need to be polite. And in the real legal world, politeness goes a long way—especially when most other attorneys’ default is to rage and…
-
Breaking Barriers: Selecting the Right Law School
Law school is different when you’re brown. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I mean, you already know that life is different for us. I think about this past summer when I did an outreach trip with coworkers and we traveled in southern Illinois. Someone wanted to stop to get a drink at a hole in the wall bar, but I became a wet blanket and encouraged us to just get to our next meeting spot. Not because I didn’t want a drink–hello, you must be new, but because I was so hesitant about entering a bar in the middle of S. Illinois. Whether that’s fair to those residents or…
-
A Community Living Through Trauma
I’ve been think a lot about trauma and the experience of Latino youth. What spoke to me most recently was the video of this young girl, Fatima, crying because the U.S. government took her father away from her. It’s clear by their story that her dad is an immense part of her life, a supporter, motivator, protector, provider—everything a good dad is. And now he’s been ripped from her. For what purpose? I read this story and thought of countless of others that I’ve read of Latino children who live in constant fear and anxiety of this happening to their families. Who hear their parents being called illegal or criminals.…