All posts tagged: Featured

Coming Full Circle Through Guided Research

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During an undergraduate course on race in the United States, I was tasked with interviewing someone who identified as a “hyphenated American” to discuss this person’s experiences as nonwhite in America. I decided to interview my grandfather, a Mexican-American man who grew up in the American Southwest. While I was aware that all of my grandparents had faced some form of discrimination in their lives because of their Mexican ancestry, this exercise gave me a chance to learn more details about my grandfather’s experiences and contextualize those experiences with historical perspective. As that class ended, I knew that I wanted to continue to dive deeper into the history of Mexican-American people and other Latinx folks, and decided that I should double major in Chicano/Latino Studies. That decision completely changed the trajectory of my education. From that point forward, I viewed my political science studies through a new lens, analyzing the intersection of political systems and low-income minority populations. For most of my life I thought that the hardships my grandparents faced were those of a …

Integrated Transactional Program: A Student’s Perspective

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During my second year at Temple Law, I was interested in developing practical legal skills that I could use at my summer associate job. I studied abroad in Rome and worked as a research assistant throughout my first summer of law school, so I didn’t have real world experience in the legal field just yet. The Integrated Transactional Program (commonly known as ITP) was the perfect opportunity to focus on my professional and legal skills in a classroom setting. The 2-semester, 10-credit sequence, led by Professor Robert Bartow, combines Trusts and Estates, Professional Responsibility, and an experiential component. Trusts and Estates is taught in the fall semester, while Professional Responsibility is held in the spring. One evening per week in both semesters, students are separated into smaller groups to practice lawyering skills with an experienced lawyer or judge as an adjunct professor. Students gain experience interviewing clients, drafting estate planning documents, negotiating contracts, and much more. Some exercises confront ethical questions in which students are required to put the Rules of Professional Conduct to use. …

Admissions Office Tips: Application Components

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To kick off the start of application review season, our Assistant Director of Admissions breaks down the various application components to help potential law students apply as strategically as possible. Numerical Indicators One of the most common things on an applicant’s mind are the numerical indicators – the LSAT score and the UGPA. They can be intimidating factors for some applicants, or something to brag about for others. What’s important to remember is that the application process is about highlighting your strengths and putting your weaknesses into context. A strong application will do both. Taking the LSAT more than once isn’t bad – either is taking it only once. It all depends on the individual’s application, and no two applications look the same. Think about your LSAT score or scores – what story do they tell? If you’ve taken it only once, was that your ideal score? If you’ve taken it more than once, does it show a persistent effort to improve? Whatever your LSAT story is, make sure to frame it in a way …

Learning to Dream Bigger

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When I made the difficult decision to leave a career as a middle school teacher to go to law school, I did it to chase what I thought of as big dreams. I had become increasingly frustrated by the limited reach that I had in my classroom, feeling powerless to address the many barriers my students faced outside the classroom. I was tired of teachers and students being treated like political footballs and as manifestations of different ideas rather than as individuals with different experiences and needs. I felt that to have a larger impact, to stop feeling powerless, I would need to work in some combination of law, politics, and policy. As I decided to submit an application to Temple, guided in large part by my interest in the Law and Public Policy Program, I remember thinking that “maybe someday, maybe somehow I’ll work in legislation in City Hall. Maybe someday—maybe years from now—I can make it that far.” I was able to check that off my list while still a student in my …