Yesterday was my last day of Law School classes. I celebrated by going to the temple. I felt like I was reliving the last day of my mission all over again. As I sat in the Celestial room of the Provo temple, I offered up a prayer of gratitude for all that Heavenly Father has blessed me these last 4 years of graduate school. It was an emotional experience, a happy one, and I felt true joy thinking about all the future holds.
I get asked all the time, "how did you decide to go to law school?"
It was 10th grade.
French class.
My teacher was trying to decide which French film she would play for us that day. I had some very strong opinions about the matter, although, for the life of me, I can't remember what they were. What I do remember is Ma. Vrabel saying simply, "You know, you ought to go to Law School!"
She planted the seed.
My sophomore year of undergrad at BYU, I was walking towards the Cannon Center when I saw a flyer on the floor advertising BYU's JD/MPA program. Law School of course, was always part of the plan, but I had no idea what a MPA was. However, once I saw the name of the degree I knew I had to pursue this program path! I graduated from BYU, took the LSAT, and left on my mission. Toward the end of my mission I used my p-days to work on my applications for both Law School and the MPA program.
How did I decide to choose BYU law?
This is a VERY Mormon answer, so forgive me! I had been given a very specific promise in my patriarchal blessing that post-mission I'd return to BYU (BYU is mentioned by name) to continue my education here. Besides this specific promise, I had a deep understanding that my time in Provo was not done. I'm more on the liberal side of the political scale, and I wanted to learn how to combine my faith with my liberal ideologies to learn how to do the most good for the most people! Even though BYU has a bit of a conservative reputation, I am living proof that this can be done!
My grad school experience has been defined by a commitment to service to the poor, needy, and the most vulnerable populations in our country. On the very first day of Contracts, Prof. Jennejohn told our class to find a cause, something that would propel us, motivate us to press forward when things got hard during law school. My motivation became my Latino roots, mi raza, mi gente, and the people of my hometown of Compton, CA who for me represent those that live in the inner city urban areas around the country, people who are plagued by the stereotype that "nothing good can come from the hood."
In law school, I've learned a new language, an empowering language: the language of the law, and I truly feel "endowed with power from on high." I feel a responsibility and duty to use my newly acquired language skills to help lift the brokenhearted and downtrodden.
The MPA program has given me concrete technical skills to learn how to truly work in a team setting, evaluate program effectiveness, and make some sense of budgets and finances. I've learned just enough to be dangerous. I've also supplemented my learning by taking advantage of some incredible undergraduate courses that have helped me make sense of the underpinnings of our nation's ugliest issues. On the legal side of things, I filled my course load with classes that spark my passion: Federal Indian Law, Civil Rights: section 1983, Civil Rights, Social Political Feminist Legal Thought, Social Change, and Immigration.
My BYU graduate school experience would be nothing were it not for my incredible professors and mentors! There's prof. Eva Witesman from the MPA program who boldly declared the power and value of female education in a BYU devotional that went viral. I took every course I possibly could from Prof. Michalyn Steele who has used her legal skills to help improve the lives of Native peoples.
There's, Prof. Kif Augustine-Adams who my class affectionately named "double A" who helped me explore my feminist understanding of the world. Prof. Rebecca DeSchwinitz, an undergraduate professor whom I met through my participation in the civil rights seminar, who advocates passionately for the voices of minority students on BYU campus. Dr. Jake Rugh who has become a true friend and uses his education to bring much needed truth to light. And finally, Prof. Carl Hernandez who somehow manages to take charge of a number of legal clinics to make sure that he does everything in his power to improve the lives of the poor and needy.
These mentors have inspired me, and are my symbolic torchbearers. They have made my BYU graduate school experience complete.
There's an Elder Kimball quote that has been mentioned quite a bit in Church settings recently:
Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world . .. will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.When I graduate on April 27th, I will be the first Latina in over 10 years to graduate with a JD/MPA from BYU. I know that coming to graduate school has been a way for me to fully play out my part in this prophecy. Graduate school has been a necessary step of my "filling the measure of my creation."
