How did you decide to go to law school? Is it something you always wanted to do?
I did not know I wanted to go to law school until after my first year of college. Over that first summer, I interned at my local Environmental Services Department in Texas and learned a lot about how environmental laws impacted policy at the local level. That first year I also learned a lot about environmental justice movements and creative ways environmental lawyers could use the law to improve communities and promote equality.
What do you want to do with your JD?
Honestly, I am still working to figure that out! With my background in environmental studies, of course, I am very interested in environmental law. However, I am also just generally passionate about making the world a better place, whether that be physically in the environment or in more social spheres. I am looking forward to gaining more experience with different areas of the law and types of practice through internships and externships so that I might have a better answer to this question soon.
Do you think ESE helped prepare you for law school?
ESE was a wonderful pre-law major for me! I really benefited from the flexibility of the major in a couple of different ways. I was able to graduate a year early in the ESE major, which meant I would only end up paying for six years of school rather than seven. I was also able to take a lot of interesting courses in a wide variety of disciplines. I took a lot of writing-heavy courses, particularly with my concentration in Society and Environment, and this was good preparation for writing in law school. ESE also taught me a lot about how to craft arguments for environmental issues, and this translates well to crafting arguments in general.
What was your favorite thing about ESE?
My favorite part of the ESE major was the flexibility. I was able to explore issues I was interested in– including the law, but also environmental health and environmental justice issues. I really liked that I was able to take courses in a diverse variety of disciplines. I graduated with a background in how GIS works and mineral identification, but also cultural shifts worldwide in reaction to climate change, and best practices for teaching children about nature. This ability to integrate different kinds of thinking has been really helpful in law school and has really allowed me to explore as a curious learner.
Do you have any advice for students who want to go to law school from ESE?
I really recommend joining pre-law organizations and taking full advantage of the pre-law advising services. The one disadvantage to having a more unique pre-law major is that you may not meet many other pre-law students or have specific pre-law programming within ESE. The pre-law advising service puts on really great programming and can help you with the specifics of achieving your goals for law school. I would also recommend taking full advantage of the flexibility of an ESE major. There are so many law-related courses offered at U of I that you can totally take advantage of. You should also challenge yourself to take upper-level courses that interest you. Starting to work at that higher, graduate level really helped me prepare for the academic challenges of law school and got me thinking about higher-level issues and practicing writing skills.
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