All posts filed under: Student Commentary

The Adopt-A-School Initiative

Published by Adetola Ajayi (LAW '19) and Amber Bethune

The Adopt-A-School Initiative (AASI) is an empowerment program co-sponsored by Temple’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA) and Assistant District Attorney Ebony Wortham, of the Juvenile Division in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. The program was created by 2016-17 1L BLSA representatives, including myself, Faith Deredge, Precious Edem, Kaylan Kerr, Carlos Tirado, Rafaela Uribe, and Yuhanna Whye. The purpose of Adopt-A-School Initiative (AASI) is to bridge the gap between Philadelphia area school children and members of Temple BLSA. The program empowers the youth, fosters leadership and teamwork amongst the law students, and promotes self-awareness and positive citizenship for all the participants. “As aspiring legal professionals in the Philadelphia area, our success transcends the law school curriculum and depends on our service to others.” The program launched on Friday, March 24, 2016 for 50, sixth grade students at the Mitchell Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia. The program is generally four weeks long but due to logistics it was shortened to a three-week long program. AASI focused on four core areas of holistic development for the sixth …

My Philly Neighborhood – Passyunk Square

Published by Casey E. Swiski (LAW '18) and Amber Bethune

Editors Note: Since Philadelphia is known as a city of neighborhoods, we asked Temple Law students, faculty, and staff to talk about what they love, hate, and can’t live without in their neighborhood. See every neighborhood covered thus far. During the first two years of law school I lived in Southwest Center City-the neighborhood straddling Rittenhouse and Graduate Hospital. While I loved its location, tree lined streets, and 5-minute walk to the Rittenhouse La Colombe, I had thoroughly explored all the dining options and was ready to reduce my rent check. I moved to Passyunk Square this spring and can’t believe I’ve missed out on all its glory for the past two years. While I had been to Passyunk Square a few times to try new restaurants, living and immersing myself in the neighborhood has been an entirely different experience. Passyunk Square is a neighborhood that stretches east from Broad Street to 6th St., and south from Washington Ave. to Tasker Street. The neighborhood of East Passyunk Crossing is very similar, and extends down from …

My Philly Neighborhood – South Philadelphia

Published by Chloe Mullen-Wilson (LAW '19) and Amber Bethune

Editor’s Note: Since Philadelphia is known as a city of neighborhoods, we asked Temple Law students, faculty, and staff to talk about what they love, hate, and can’t live without in their neighborhood. See every neighborhood covered thus far. Having come from North Jersey, Philadelphia was always an accessible city for me. In my early college years I visited Philly with friends from school, and fell in love with it. My first introduction to South Philly was visiting my friend’s house on Daly Street. What caught my eye on that nice spring day back in 2014 was how homey the neighborhood felt. Adjacent neighbors passed baking ingredients on porches, and everyone waved as we walked by. When my roommate—another rising 2L—and I began our search for an apartment in South Philly, we were mostly motivated by the low rent prices. As we continued our search, though, we got the homey vibe we had been looking for. The landlords were nice enough, but every apartment we looked at, we made sure to peruse the surrounding streets and …

My Story: The Temple-Tsinghua LL.M. Program

Published by Vinee (Xuemei) Hu LL.M. '17 and Amber Bethune

This summer was special for me in many ways. For one, I came back to Philadelphia, a city where I spent half a year as a visiting scholar with Temple Law in 2013. It meant enjoying the beauty and historical sightseeing of this city one more time, meeting old friends at Temple Law, and making new ones. Coming back to Philly to do part of my LL.M. program as a full-time student with my Chinese classmates also meant an unexpected opportunity to experience campus life once more. What’s more, I was extremely looking forward to meeting Temple Law professors to learn from them, and to get a better idea of how American law schools prepare law students for their legal careers. With all those thoughts in my mind, I arrived in Philly. It turned out to be something more amazing and wonderful than what I had expected. During the two-month program, we took 3 courses focusing on the practical aspects of American legal education. We got the big picture of American trial advocacy; we learned …

How a Temple Law School Education Helped Shape My Legal Career in U.S. Law

Published by Shiori Yamamoto LLM '15

When a partner attorney at Uryu & Itoga, the law firm where I work as paralegal, recommended to me to go to Temple Law School (Japan campus) to earn an LL.M. degree in U.S. law, I was overjoyed and literally grabbed the chance. Studying at a U.S. law school and earning an LL.M. degree had been my dream for as long as I could remember. My father was one of the earliest Japanese legal professionals to earn an LL.M. degree at a U.S. law school in recent Japanese history. He studied at Michigan Law School in the early 1970s, and while Mitsui & Co. is presently known as one of the major international Japanese trading companies to dispatch legal personnel overseas, he was the first legal employee to actually succeed in earning an LL.M. degree from that company, having been dispatched to the U.S. law school with high expectations from his colleagues. Partly due to the influence of my father, I was so deeply interested in U.S. law that I studied Anglo-American common law and …

“Start Local:” Kathryn Kolbert ’77 Issues a Call to Arms to the Women’s Law Caucus

Published by Jen Berger '19

Early in my 1L year, I heard that the Temple Women’s Law Caucus (WLC) formed in the early 1970s to build a coalition for advocacy focused on issues affecting the ability of women to succeed at Temple Law and in the legal field. The story goes that the Caucus’ first act of rebellion took place in Klein Hall. The women placed flower pots in the urinals of each men’s bathroom—a way of drawing attention to the fact that the law school had not been built with women’s restrooms. It was a small act, but a powerful statement. The organization’s origins and tradition of providing a forum to think about and confront obstacles facing women in the law led me to join the WLC. As old barriers that faced female Temple Law students were torn down, and women entered the law in greater numbers, the WLC came to emphasize networking for women seeking to climb the career ladder. Unfortunately, as news blasts about the toxic cultures at Uber and Fox News remind us, workplace discrimination, unequal …

Coffee with Crystal Brown ’05: Pursuing a Career in the Federal Government

Published by Francis Notarianni '19

As a law student interested in a non-conventional career, I found Crystal Brown’s discussion with Dean Lennon informative and reassuring. I came to law school with the intention of working for the Federal Government. Yet, I am still not exactly certain how I will achieve that goal. The discussion confirmed what I have heard from other Federal employees: there is no formulaic way to obtain a job in the Federal Government. Rather, it will require taking some risks and keeping your mind open to jobs you never thought you would have interest in. Ms. Brown’s career path is great example for any law student interested in a successful career in government. Ms. Brown’s interest in public policy, rooted in her undergraduate studies at Duke University, led her to Temple Law. After graduation, she had the opportunity to clerk for notable Temple alum, the Honorable Clifford Scott Green. She spoke highly of her experience and strongly recommended a federal clerkship upon graduation from Temple. The relationship she forged with Judge Green and the experience she gained …

Letter to a Transgender Prospective Law Student

Published by Cameron Redfern '19 and Jasper Katz LAW '19

Today is Transgender Day of Visibility. And, as I do on most days, I have many feelings. On the one hand, I want nothing more than your (our) visibility. I want us to be everywhere. I don’t want anyone to be able to go anywhere without knowing that there is a trans person there with them; without knowing that respecting us is not just an expectation, it is a demand. On the other hand, visibility should never be a prerequisite for your existence. You have always already deserved existence, survival, happiness. We shouldn’t have to go to the Supreme Court to be able to use the bathroom. We shouldn’t have to leave our homes, we shouldn’t have to let lawyers speak for us, and, more than anything, we shouldn’t have to die. Our worth should not be predicated on how visible we are. I came to law school because trans people are my home. Because I will choose trans people every time, without question and without apology. Because I wanted to be useful to this …

Looking Between Borders to Understand the Refugee Experience

Published by Lilah Thompson (LAW '17)

Editor’s note: Lilah Thompson ’17 is a PSJD Pro Bono Publico Merit Distinction Honoree. This post originally appeared at the PSJD blog, available here. A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. Of the 65.3 million people displaced worldwide 21.3 million are refugees. Over half of the world’s refugees are children. The number of refugees in the world is currently at the highest level ever recorded in human history. To fully understand the stories behind these staggering numbers, I worked with Professor Jaya Ramji Nogales to create Between Borders: A Refugee Simulation Experience. Between Borders is a participatory workshop that simulates the life of a refugee throughout all stages of the refugee process. This simulation is an awareness-building activity that places participants in the “shoes of a refugee” in order to conceptualize the experiences that they face. The simulation focuses on four important aspects: (1) why refugees flee; (2) how they are deemed refugees; (3) how refugees are screened and vetted; and (4) …