For Arabella Loera and Caroline Hauer, the journey from University of Dayton undergraduate to law student meant a walk to a different building on campus and a step into another world.
“As first-generation law students we didn’t have the connections to know who to talk to or who to ask the right questions to or even what were the right questions,” Hauer says.
So Hauer and Loera, along with fellow law students Kellan Duffy, Abby Gowen, Ty Lau, Kelli Myers and Jacob Spry have developed the Law School Pathways program to help bridge that gap between undergrad and law school.
“This is not necessarily to create a pipeline program that students from undergrad will come to UDSL for law school, but to expose them to what we all do in our daily lives as law students,” Loera says. “I think mentorship is really important and hopefully, this program provides undergraduate students a way in that is organic and informal before they embark on their law school journey or whatever career path they seek.”
So far, the program has paired more than 25 UD undergraduates with an interest in Pre-Law with upper-level law students who can provide them guidance on what to expect in law school.
“A goal of the program is talking about the hidden parts of law school,” Hauer says. “How do you finance your legal education? What does day-to-day life look like for you? It can seem so far away, especially for students who are in their freshman year, but starting to think about those things now can help them to prepare and have a more seamless transition into law school.”
The program is also designed to encourage the undergraduate students to be the ones to reach out to their mentors when they have questions, so they can see that it’s not as intimidating as they might think.
“A goal of this program is making sure the mentees are initiating a lot of the contact,” Loera says. “It can be daunting for students but hopefully it does make them better off when it comes to networking and make them less fearful of the vulnerabilities that go along with putting themselves out there and asking the questions first.”
Hauer says she’s really enjoyed being able to get to know and mentor a student this year and that she’s also learned from it.
“In a mentor position we see ourselves as we’re supposed to be helping this person but at the same time, they’re helping us figure out how our leadership style is shaped and how we’re going to grow in the legal profession,” Hauer says.
The seven students who put together the Law School Pathways program are in UDSL’s Leadership Honors Program, which provides a full-tuition scholarship and is designed for highly-motivated students who want to be part of the next generation of lawyer-leaders. As part of the program, students participate in a specially-designed Graduated Leadership Sequence. The final step in the sequence is undertaking a Leadership Legacy Project that will have a positive impact on the community.
The Pathways program is the Legacy Project these students are working on and they plan to have it continue even after they graduate. They have turned the program into a student organization at the law school, so that it will be open to any future UDSL students to join and continue offering important mentorship opportunities to undergraduates.
“Having a mentor and a good group of friends and people to go to can reassure you that you’re on the right track and that you will be fine,” Loera says. “You’re going to move on and look back fondly on some of the best years of your life and on the memories you created.”