Meet the Ambassador: Maria Benvenuto

Name: Maria BenvenutoMaria B

Year: 1L (Class of 2018)

Undergraduate institution: Villanova University, Class of 2015, graduated magna cum laude

Experiences between college and law school: In my summer between my undergrad and law school I led a group of twenty high school students from the Baltimore School of the Arts on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Durham, North Carolina. I have participated in a number Habitat for Humanity trips throughout undergrad, and so, it was very rewarding to introduce such a commendable organization to future volunteers.

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Meet the Ambassador: Daniel Fishman

Name: Daniel FishmanDaniel Fishman

Year: 3L (Class of 2016)

Undergraduate institution: Washington University in St. Louis, Class of 2011, University Athletic Association All-Academic Team, Football (2007-2010).

Experiences between college and law school: For two years after college, I had a job in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, working on policy, legislation, and the state budget.

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Time for a little light reading over break

In addition to the relief of the workload that finals season imposes, the end of the semester gives you the chance to read something you choose. Law school doesn’t provide much free time to kick back with any books besides the ones your professors assign for class reading.

Personally, I’m taking the opportunity to sink my teeth into something written by a former Supreme Court justice that isn’t about what the law is, but rather what he thinks it should be. No lengthy fact patterns or dissents!

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Meet the Ambassador: Ryan Dougherty

Name: Ryan DoughertyRyan Dougherty

Year: 1L (Class of 2018)

Undergraduate institution: Georgetown University, Class of 2011, three-time BIG EAST All-Academic selection as a member of the Hoyas basketball team.

Experiences between college and law school: After college, I got my Master’s degree in Government at Georgetown, with a concentration in International Law and Global Security. While in grad school I was a volunteer assistant basketball coach at Georgetown. Afterwards, I worked for a consulting firm in Washington, DC, advising clients on national security issues in the defense, energy, public health, and transportation sectors.

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Meet the Ambassadors: Andrea Clavijo & Lydia Bugli

Boston College Law Ambassadors is a newly launched program designed to enhance the on-campus experience for every prospective student who visits BC Law. The Ambassadors are thirty students who lead campus tours, help out at Admitted Students Day, and serve as a resource for applicants and admitted students who are considering enrolling at BC Law.

In support of this role, each Ambassador will be profiled on the Impact blog over the course of the school year. If you are a prospective student and notice something about any of our Ambassadors that you’d like to discuss with him or her – whether it’s a shared alma mater, an interesting extracurricular, or an appealing summer job – do not hesitate to reach out. After all, that’s what we’re here for!

To begin this series, we start with the two students who developed and kickstarted the Ambassadors program: Andrea Clavijo and Lydia Bugli.

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A tale of intersectionality, or that one summer where Nicki Minaj was right about a lot of things

I don’t consider pop artists to be role models, because, really, that’s not their job. Their job is to create music or act or…whatever it is Kim Kardashian does, and rarely do we care what they think about social justice issues.

So color me surprised when this summer I realized that Nicki Minaj’s social media skirmish was actually doing an awesome job of illustrating an issue most people don’t even really think about: intersectionality.

Before we get started to the juicy celebrity drama, let’s get some definitions out of the way. Quite simply, intersectionality is the study of how different forms of discrimination intersect. And a feminist is a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Easy, right?

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On Campus: A Dialogue on Gun Rights & Gun Control (Audio)

As a 3L at BC Law, I am always impressed with our student body’s desire to engage each other on tough and important issues of law and society. Whether we are discussing matters of constitutional law, diversity and inclusion, corporate governance, criminal justice, health care, civil rights, or any number of issues, our student groups love to spark extracurricular debate and discussion.

One such group is the American Constitution Society, an organization dedicated to developing progressive leaders in the legal field. Yesterday, the BC Law chapter of the ACS hosted an event entitled “ACS: A Dialogue About Gun Control & Gun Rights” featuring Michael Ball ’18 and myself. This was a highly-structured dialogue that was intended to be educational, productive, and intellectually honest. Gun rights and gun policy are a sensitive issue, and our goal as a progressive student group was to make sure that we enter that policy sphere with as much education on the subject as possible.

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