As a 1L, I compared Orientation and the first week of classes to drinking from a firehose. You have classwork, networking opportunities, resume revisions, meeting new friends—the list is exhausting. You sit at your desk reading cases, briefing, trying to find rules, going through classes, feeling decent in cold calls but not feeling anything click yet.
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How My Grandmother’s Escape from Persecution Helped Me Discover My Own Path
Ilovik, Croatia, is a sparsely developed island with a compact area of just five square miles. With only 60 permanent residents and a modest influx of expatriates each summer, Ilovik’s way of life is characterized by its isolation and limited resources. The idyllic beauty of the island belies the history and complex legal struggles of many of its inhabitants. I have spent most of my childhood summers visiting my Baba, Croatian for grandmother, in Ilovik. During these visits, as I listened to Baba’s poignant recollections of her time on and off the island, I discovered my calling to pursue a career in law.
Continue readingThe Implied Warranty of Fitness
As finals season approaches, many of us are buried in our textbooks, reviewing case briefs, finalizing outlines and memos, and visiting professors during office hours. In doing so, a few may have encountered the doctrine of “implied warranty of fitness.” For some, this doctrine might sound familiar from contract law.1 For others, it might sound familiar from property law.2 But the “implied warranty of fitness” I’m referring to exists beyond model codes, cases, and classrooms: the implied need to be physically and mentally fit.
For newly minted 1Ls, law school has shown us that we constantly engage in rigorous and complex thought processes, from comprehending unnecessarily convoluted cases and writing legal memos to pondering hypotheticals and participating in competitions. These “mental gymnastics” require countless hours studying in the library and at home on top of regularly scheduled class time—all of which is spent sitting down. Evidently, life in the legal world is largely sedentary, which makes sense considering that physical fitness is neither an ABA requirement nor testable material on the UBE.
Continue readingLaw School: Stepping Stone or End Goal?
By Alyssa Leston
So you made the decision to go to law school.
Maybe–like me–you realized it was the last day to sign up for the LSAT for the upcoming application cycle, forcing you to spend a frantic few weeks studying and then researching which school was the right fit.
Or maybe you’ve known for years that this was your path; months of preparation, tours, and networking brought you to the school you are at now, feeling ready and excited to start achieving your dream.
Or maybe, now that you’re here, you’ve stopped caring about how you got to where you are, because you realized that regardless of the process, you’re not excited to be there after all.
So, what now?
Continue readingThe Beauty of an American Legal Education: An International Student’s Perspective
In the heart of Hong Kong’s Central district, under the watchful gaze of towering skyscrapers and amidst the city’s bustle, stands Lady Justice. Wearing a blindfold and delicately balancing scales in her hand, she acts as a beacon, symbolizing the enduring principles of fairness, equity, and the rule of law. She also represents Hong Kong’s British past, a colonial relic amidst ever-evolving cityscape and sovereignty that envelops her. As I left Hong Kong for Boston to attend law school, I thought of her journey, albeit stilted, through centuries of urban growth, shifts in sovereignty, and natural decay. With the statue of Lady Justice etched in my mind, I began my own legal journey in the United States.
So, as a Hong Konger, why attend law school in the United States? There are plenty of other common law jurisdictions to attain a law degree. The United Kingdom. Canada. Australia. Even Hong Kong itself. For me, the answer lies not just in the pursuit of a degree, but in the distinct ethos and philosophy of American legal education.
Continue readingBreathe
“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
Those words, spoken by motivational speaker Eric Thomas, inspired me after I was rejected by The United States Military Academy at West Point when I first applied as a high school senior. Nevertheless, I did not lose my focus, my resolve, or my commitment to attend West Point because I wanted to serve our country and to fight for the rights and freedoms of others. Following the route of General George S. Patton, who attended West Point after a year at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), I went to VMI.
VMI is an institution known for its challenging first-year experience, known as the “Rat Line,” its sexist history (United States v. Virginia et al., 1996), and its military support of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. As an African-American cadet, I had to come to terms with VMI’s past and the constant reminders on its campus that glorified supporters of slavery. For example, as a “rat” (a freshman who has not yet earned the title of “cadet” by completing a crucible known as “Breakout”), I was required to salute the statue of Lieutenant General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson—a Confederate officer who taught at VMI and who believed that African-Americans were incapable of becoming disciplined soldiers—prior to the statue’s subsequent removal on December 7, 2020. I was also required to participate in an annual celebration of the ten VMI cadets who died for the Confederacy during the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. At this celebration, my classmates and I were ordered to reenact a Confederate charge and seizure of a hill that was occupied by Union artillery forces, which I did with disdain.
Continue readingThe Most Important Advice I’ve Received about My Summer Job Search
Along with every other 1L, I am applying for a summer job. I’ve been to networking events, workshops, panels, and how-tos. My notebook overflows with well-meaning advice and guidance. The problem is that none of it applies to me. I don’t have a resumé; I’ve never had one.
I’m what people call a “non-traditional” law student. I came late to law school after building a career as a professor. I did have a distinguished undergraduate career, filled with awards, accolades and accomplishments. But I can’t put those things on my resumé. That was twenty some years ago. It would look weird, my notebook says. Out of place (underlined). They were important things. Bright, big things. They mattered then, and they matter now. But it won’t help me land a summer job. Employers don’t want to see that, quotes the notebook. So, /select/highlight/delete, and just like that, parts of my life are cut away. Besides, I need that space so I can focus on my strengths (circled; exclamation point). Because the resumé manuals tell me I have to…wait, where is it…oh, right. Lead with my core competencies (question mark). And above all, circled and twice underlined and given arrows all around it, the number-one-most-important-thing-to-remember-is…just be yourself!
But the problem with being yourself is that it’s hard to know who that is.
Continue reading‘The sport of argument:’ Nathaniel DeMelis and a Commitment to Justice
Over the 2022 holiday break, the BC Law Impact blog is running a series of some of the most powerful and fascinating admissions essays from first-year students. These personal statements, submitted as part of their admissions applications, tell a variety of compelling stories, but the thread connecting them all is an example of the kind of person who is attracted to a BC Law education: one who is driven to work collaboratively with others, achieve great things and make a real difference in the world.
We want to thank the Office of Admissions, and all of the student essay writers, for agreeing to share their stories with us. For more Admissions tips and other content, check out BC Law’s new TikTok channel.
Be it the penchant for holiday arguments, or the lessons of my late grandfather, my family has consistently shaped my growth and founded my interest in the law.
In an Italian family that frequently exercises their freedom of speech in the sport of argument, it can be difficult to get a word in edgewise—especially around the holiday dinner table. There exists only a brief window of opportunity to make your point, and make it well, before you will either be refuted or simply shouted down.
Continue reading‘Taking pride in one’s own culture:’ Daniel Li’s Path to Law School
Over the 2022 holiday break, the BC Law Impact blog is running a series of some of the most powerful and fascinating admissions essays from first-year students. These personal statements, submitted as part of their admissions applications, tell a variety of compelling stories, but the thread connecting them all is an example of the kind of person who is attracted to a BC Law education: one who is driven to work collaboratively with others, achieve great things and make a real difference in the world.
We want to thank the Office of Admissions, and all of the student essay writers, for agreeing to share their stories with us. For more Admissions tips and other content, check out BC Law’s new TikTok channel.
During the first thirteen years of my life, living in Hungary, I cannot count how many times I felt embarrassed for doing something that was only natural to everyone else at school: talking to my mother. The only difference was that my classmates spoke Hungarian, while I spoke Chinese. The difference is minute, but it was significant for me. As my mother picked me up from school and asked how my day was, I chose either to stay silent or occasionally, say “hao,” which means “fine” and is a short and sweet, one-syllable word, just sufficient to answer my mother’s question and to not embarrass myself in front of my Hungarian classmates. But the source of embarrassment did not stem from being different in general—it rather stemmed from being Chinese, as my classmates made countless “harmless” jokes about eating dog meat, or engaged in “well-intentioned” stereotyping about having “almond eyes.”
Continue reading‘Empowering young women to use their voice:’ Ellie Burger and Creating Change
Over the 2022 holiday break, the BC Law Impact blog is running a series of some of the most powerful and fascinating admissions essays from first-year students. These personal statements, submitted as part of their admissions applications, tell a variety of compelling stories, but the thread connecting them all is an example of the kind of person who is attracted to a BC Law education: one who is driven to work collaboratively with others, achieve great things and make a real difference in the world.
We want to thank the Office of Admissions, and all of the student essay writers, for agreeing to share their stories with us. For more Admissions tips and other content, check out BC Law’s new TikTok channel.
Halfway through our cruise on the Potomac River, myself and the other Prudential Spirit of Community Award recipients were told to elaborate further on what convened us there that day. We had all been selected for making meaningful contributions to our communities through volunteer service. While I was eager to share details on the organization I had founded and hear from the other participants about theirs, I was hesitant. I could not help but think that there was a ceiling of sorts, a limit to the impact that any one individual, especially an adolescent, could have on such serious matters.
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BC Law: Impact 