Name: Cusaj Thomas
Year: 1L (Class of 2018)
Undergraduate institution: Boston College, Class of 2015; Henry J. McMahon Award recipient; Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship finalist
Activities at BC Law (besides being an Ambassador): Historian, Black Law Students Association
Name: Charlene Ochogo
Year: 2L (Class of 2017)
Undergraduate institution: University of Florida, Class of 2014
Experiences between college and law school: The most relaxed summer ever (i.e., I went straight through).
Going to BC Law doesn’t have to mean spending three years in Boston. For those who want to use law school as an opportunity to explore other places, BC sponsors a ton of Semester in Practice programs in cities as close as New York and as far away as Amsterdam.
Watch the video below to learn about Diane Prend, ’16, who spent a Semester in Practice in Washington, D.C. as part of the #BCinDC program. You can also check out an article about her time in D.C. here.
And if you’re interested in learning more about the Semester in Practice programs, you can check those out here.
Meghan and Katie, 3L instructors for the environmental law course
BC Law has a very unique opportunity called the Environmental Law & Policy teaching program. Under the supervision of a BC Law professor, pairs of 3Ls teach a course for BC undergrads based around environmental law.
One pair of 3L instructors, Meghan Morgan and Katie Kelliher, was kind enough to give us an inside look at what they’re teaching their students, as well as what they each take away from the program personally (in addition to the academic credit).
Name: Allison Walsh
Year: 1L (Class of 2018)
Undergraduate institution: Fairfield University, Class of 2013, graduated cum laude; Deans List: 2010-2013; All-Academic Team 2009-2013; English Honors Society
Experiences between college and law school: I was a paralegal at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York City.
Name: Alain Mathieu
Year: 2L (Class of 2017)
Undergraduate institution: Bowdoin College, Class of 2012, graduated cum laude, Government and Legal Studies
Experiences between college and law school: I worked as the Alumni Fund Associate for Bowdoin College for two years. There, I managed the College’s young alumni and senior class gift campaigns.
Name: Sarah Shaw
Year: 1L (Class of 2018)
Undergraduate institution: Northeastern University, B.S. in Political Science, Class of 2012, graduated magna cum laude
Experiences between college and law school: I earned my M.A. in Political Science with a focus on Voting Systems in American Government, Northeastern University 2013. I then worked at a litigation law firm in Waltham, MA for two years.
Since I came to Boston College Law School in the Fall of 2013, the dialogue on campus about race and culture has moved front and center. This semester, part of that continuing dialogue has included BC Law’s promotion of Disgraced, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Muslim-American Ayad Akhtar. Huntington Theater Company summarized the play:
In Disgraced, high-powered New York lawyer Amir has climbed the corporate ladder while distancing himself from his Muslim roots. When he and his wife Emily host a dinner party, what starts as a friendly conversation escalates, shattering their views on race, religion, and each other.
As an American who was raised Muslim, I am acutely aware of how rare it is to find a central, three-dimensional depiction of our community in the mainstream media. The closest I can recall was the short-lived TLC reality show All-American Muslims, which went just eight episodes before succumbing to backlash from bigoted interest groups, cowed advertisers, and low ratings.
Even President Obama, in a touching speech during his recent historic visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore, briefly mentioned our conspicuous absence in mainstream storytelling:
Part of what we have to do is to lift up the contributions of the Muslim-American community not when there’s a problem, but all the time. Our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security because it’s not that hard to do. There was a time when there were no black people on television. And you can tell good stories while still representing the reality of our communities.
So of course, I was excited to learn that Disgraced even existed. There is much to explore about the Muslim-American story, especially given how fundamentally it changed after 9/11. Since then, Muslim-Americans have been forced to reconcile our identities, both privately and publicly, in the wake of every atrocity carried out in our name. It has been distracting, dehumanizing, and exhausting to endure, not to mention frightening.
Finally, Disgraced was one of us earning the chance to share our story, truthfully and unapologetically; to humanize ourselves in a way that only great art can, warts and all.
I headed into Huntington Theater feeling optimistic and hopeful.
I left feeling betrayed, ashamed, and angry.
Spoilers ahead.
Name: Jill Gately
Year: 1L (Class of 2018)
Undergraduate institution: Wesleyan University, Class of 2015
The most intense commitment I have made at BC Law is still my decision to join the Boston College Law Review during the summer after my 1L year. Estimating conservatively, I have devoted more time to BCLR than to the other classes I have taken over the past four semesters… combined.
By the time I graduate in May, I’ll have been involved with the publication of seven books’ worth of legal scholarship authored by professors from all over the country. I’ll have received a total of eight academic credits for the work I’ve done since my 2L year. But today is probably the most exciting day of my entire time on BCLR.
BC Law: Impact 