Gaining Experience as a Pre-Law Student

Bethany Heaney Author

12/19/2024 Added

1 Plays

Description

There are many ways to gain experience as a pre-law student, with opportunities on campus, in the local community, and beyond. With so many options, it can be hard to know where to begin getting involved. This workshop will help you reflect on which skill sets you would like to develop as a pre-law student and plan for your involvement as you prepare to apply to law school.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:06.770]Bethany Heaney: All right, we're gonna get started here. My name is Bethany Heaney, and I'm an academic advisor at the Explore Center. So thank you all for coming today. We are going to do some activities today.
[00:00:19.040]Bethany Heaney: yeah, if some people come and can come to this table here as well, just so, you know, I am recording this. There isn't anyone on Zoom. But we record through. Zoom. So if you're curious what that is. But we'll put this online if you would like to watch it later.
[00:00:33.620]Bethany Heaney: Our 1st slide here is for the event. Pass so when you guys came in you might have been asked about if you have the event pass. So you and I was kind of switching over to having this QR code on your phone to sign in for events. So if you hear about that, that's what that is. There's some instructions for how to sign up for that. If you haven't done that yet, you're probably gonna be asked more and more about having an event pass. Just so, you know. So
[00:01:01.434]Bethany Heaney: yeah, alright. Well, welcome to the gaining experiences as a Pre-Law student workshop. We are going to.
[00:01:11.400]Bethany Heaney: It's the
[00:01:14.950]Bethany Heaney: okay. We're going to start off with kind of a pre-workshop reflection. So you should all on your table have a worksheet. That kind of looks like a compass on it.
[00:01:24.090]Bethany Heaney: and I'm going to have you just take a couple minutes to complete the East and West questions. So the east question is, what excites you about gaining experience as a pre.
[00:01:35.840]Bethany Heaney: It should say, Pre-law student. I got
[00:01:38.560]Bethany Heaney: kind of weird printed there and then. What wonderings or questions or worries do you have about gaining experience as a Pre-Law student. So take just a couple minutes to jot that down. I do have some pens up here. If you don't have a pen or pencil, and then we'll get started here in just a moment.
[00:04:51.210]Bethany Heaney: Alright, hopefully. You had a little bit of time to think about some of those questions. You guys don't have to answer this question if you don't want to. But does anyone have anything that they'd like to share about what they're excited about? With getting experience or some questions that you have about it before we jump in.
[00:05:09.670]Bethany Heaney: or at least wrote down a few for yourself.
[00:05:12.680]Bethany Heaney: Okay, awesome. That's totally great. You can just keep that kind of for yourself. And we'll jump in. So.
[00:05:20.560]Bethany Heaney: okay, so today, yeah, we're going to talk about gaining experience as a pre law student.
[00:05:27.597]Bethany Heaney: Just to kind of get a pull of the room. Is anybody in here? freshmen? Okay, got a couple of freshmen? sophomore junior. Okay, awesome. So kind of all different experience levels, which is great. Hopefully, there's something in here for all of you today.
[00:05:46.310]Bethany Heaney: Okay, so what we're going to be going over today is we're going to talk about the American Bar Association. Their Pre-Law competencies. We're going to talk about ways to gain experience, and then how to document those experiences. So
[00:06:01.960]Bethany Heaney: as a Pre-Law student, no matter where you're at in your journey, as you get closer and closer to applying to law school. You're going to want to be gaining experiences that you can talk about in your application. So that's yeah. What today is going to be about. So
[00:06:17.600]Bethany Heaney: we're going to start off with the ABA competencies. So the American Bar Association has kind of put out these 10 competencies that they want law students to be working towards. So
[00:06:30.510]Bethany Heaney: you might have some friends that are Pre-Health students, and they have to take certain science classes, or, you know, certain kind of requirements for those things. It's just kind of an example.
[00:06:42.120]Bethany Heaney: But law schools don't require certain classes. They require more kind of that, you're growing in these skills if that makes sense. So everything ranging from problem solving to, you know, research, background knowledge.
[00:06:58.252]Bethany Heaney: you know, public service and and promotion of justice. So during your time at UNL, you're going to want to be making sure that you're getting experiences growing in these these competencies.
[00:07:09.610]Bethany Heaney: and that when you apply to law school that you can show somehow on your application, whether it's through classes, whether it's through your essay that you're going to write or other. You know parts of the application that you can show that you have something in these categories.
[00:07:28.100]Bethany Heaney: So what we're going to do next is on your table. You should see kind of in the middle a list of the core competencies, and what I would like for you to do is either work with the person at your table, or you can work on your own, too.
[00:07:45.130]Bethany Heaney: and identify kind of what skills or attitudes those like core competencies are are highlighting. And yeah, why, those might be
[00:07:56.000]Bethany Heaney: important to law school, so it should be the one I think, kind of in the middle there.
[00:08:00.990]Bethany Heaney: so at least start with them. There's 10. You don't have to read through everything but kind of start looking through those, and then I am going to ask you to share a couple of things that you learned at the end. Okay, take us a couple of minutes to do that.
[00:08:24.530]Bethany Heaney: and if it's easier you can focus on. I put on your tables like the little orange post it notes. So those are titles of the competencies. If you want to just start with those that's fine. Then everybody kind of has something different to share
[00:08:38.480]Bethany Heaney: as well.
[00:09:42.090]Bethany Heaney: Let's see.
[00:09:43.760]Bethany Heaney: it's
[00:09:52.500]Bethany Heaney: oops.
[00:11:13.660]Bethany Heaney: Okay, what are some things that you guys are noticing about some of the competencies. So yeah, what are some skills? That you noticed in these competencies?
[00:11:29.900]Bethany Heaney: Let's discuss
[00:11:32.000]Bethany Heaney: the
[00:11:33.210]Bethany Heaney: quick service and emotional justice. One, it says,
[00:11:37.250]Bethany Heaney: like to either volunteer or make effort to assist others, and that relates to, you know, just having clients as a lawyer, for example, you're always going to work to help them. Public service and promotion of justice, doing some volunteering to kind of give back to the community and not just be just a lawyer getting things done. But you're helping other people practicing that. It's awesome.
[00:12:05.580]Bethany Heaney: Alright. What else did we see?
[00:12:11.330]Bethany Heaney: I feel like there's an overall theme of just like having some background knowledge like of what the law is, what they do. So you're not going into these classes like not knowing the vocab or what's happening, having some good background knowledge, making sure that you are ready to go into those classes. That's great.
[00:12:28.690]Bethany Heaney: being able to
[00:12:30.300]Bethany Heaney: like, engage yourself and read like extensive material, to be able to break it down.
[00:12:34.580]Bethany Heaney: Kind of exposing yourself to
[00:12:37.390]Bethany Heaney: like, develop your language. It's like the most important part of like. Concisely get to the point.
[00:12:44.410]Bethany Heaney: People aren't going to want to let them sit there and listen, to ramble and be precise. Yep, being precise working on those communication skills, research skills, all of those things. Okay, thank you. All for sharing. You guys can take these home, too. If you want to. Look through those. And
[00:13:01.490]Bethany Heaney: yeah, be thinking about how you can grow in some of those skills.
[00:13:06.040]Bethany Heaney: But yeah, that's going to be actually our next question, where could you develop some of these core competencies? So, and I'll give you some ideas, too. So don't worry. But where do you think are some places that you could get either volunteering or growing in the background, knowledge or practice your communication skills? What are some? Some things you could do right now to grow in those skills. What do you think?
[00:13:29.780]Bethany Heaney: reading like legislative bills, breaking them down like what they actually look like?
[00:13:35.010]Bethany Heaney: Legislative terminology.
[00:13:37.350]Bethany Heaney: It can be super confusing, just by the way, the the words that they use without being able to like
[00:13:42.550]Bethany Heaney: be used to that kind of exposure, being able to like, interpret those words
[00:13:47.060]Bethany Heaney: the earlier the better.
[00:13:50.620]Bethany Heaney: Some bills getting used to that language, awesome
[00:13:56.000]Bethany Heaney: other ideas?
[00:13:58.420]Bethany Heaney: I feel like not only exposing yourself to the law, but exposing yourself to the issues themselves. I know there's lots of volunteer opportunities and Linkedin for different issues that just like in nonprofits that would help you just expose absolutely. Yeah. It knows that experience, and it might even help you figure out kind of what you're passionate about, too. Like you might know you want to go into law.
[00:14:20.990]Bethany Heaney: but you might have a few different pathways you could go with that. But getting more involved might help clarify that for you, too. So that's good.
[00:14:28.900]Bethany Heaney: All right, any other thoughts?
[00:14:31.050]Bethany Heaney: Or we go to the next slide.
[00:14:35.840]Bethany Heaney: Okay.
[00:14:36.960]Bethany Heaney: well, let's just start kind of right at the top with communication. So this is going to be like writing, editing and verbal communication skills. And these are some places that you can get those skills.
[00:14:48.753]Bethany Heaney: So Lincoln literacy, they have, like conversation groups, you know, teaching opportunities, writing or editing for the Daily Nebraskan or you know various kind of writing opportunities there.
[00:15:03.670]Bethany Heaney: Lincoln toastmasters. It's like a
[00:15:07.110]Bethany Heaney: kind of a community public speaking
[00:15:10.660]Bethany Heaney: group where they do like competitions and that kind of thing. So if you're wanting to practice your public speaking skills.
[00:15:17.460]Bethany Heaney: That can be an option.
[00:15:19.868]Bethany Heaney: Yeah, big red readers, Creative Writing club here on campus, or also the Mock Trial Club is another place to get some skills.
[00:15:30.660]Bethany Heaney: And then speech and debate. You know, Philosophy club. Yeah, those are some some options for
[00:15:38.330]Bethany Heaney: the communication side.
[00:15:41.270]Bethany Heaney: As I'm going if you guys have, like other ideas that you want to share with the group, feel free to raise your hand, too and I can
[00:15:46.900]Bethany Heaney: add that to our list.
[00:15:49.968]Bethany Heaney: For research, organization and management. How many of you have heard of UCARE on campus?
[00:15:56.280]Bethany Heaney: Nobody. Okay? Well, good thing. So UCARE is our research kind of department, basically on campus at UNL.
[00:16:05.006]Bethany Heaney: so they can help you get connected to all kinds of research opportunities right here at UNL. If that's something that you're interested in.
[00:16:12.670]Bethany Heaney: you can also go just directly through certain departments. So maybe you're interested in getting research in a psychology department or you know the political science department or something like that? You might be able to join a professor on their specific research that they're working on
[00:16:31.516]Bethany Heaney: you know, you're gonna get research experience just by writing all those papers that you have to write. I know it's not everybody's favorite thing. But you're getting research experience doing that.
[00:16:41.567]Bethany Heaney: You're gonna get some management and organizational skills by being involved in clubs, whether you have a leadership position or
[00:16:49.708]Bethany Heaney: you know, in a club or organization. That's gonna definitely help you out there.
[00:16:56.070]Bethany Heaney: I won't read off all of these. But yeah, just basically, getting involved is gonna help you get some of these experiences.
[00:17:06.099]Bethany Heaney: Okay, public service and promotion of justice. So we've already talked today about getting some volunteering opportunities.
[00:17:13.389]Bethany Heaney: These are somewhat. Some of these, I guess, are kind of maybe more, the public service side. But
[00:17:19.748]Bethany Heaney: I think that these could be really helpful. So you can do some things on campus if you're interested in that, like ASUN, you know, becoming an RA. You could do like a college advisory board.
[00:17:34.960]Bethany Heaney: we have lots of opportunities on campus. But there's also a lot of opportunities off campus for growing in these skills as well. So, for example, getting an internship working for the U.S. Senate is an option.
[00:17:50.553]Bethany Heaney: Doing something within Lincoln. There's some places like Nebraska Appleseed and Neighbor Works.
[00:17:57.930]Bethany Heaney: that you can volunteer at or get internships at.
[00:18:02.510]Bethany Heaney: So those are kind of some like yeah. Public service and promotion of of justice. Type organizations,
[00:18:10.540]Bethany Heaney: or, you know, working at like a citizenship class or anything kind of along those lines. Does anybody else have anything else they would add to this list of things they've done or things they would want to try?
[00:18:25.500]Bethany Heaney: Hopefully a good comprehensive list for you.
[00:18:29.278]Bethany Heaney: Yeah. So just yeah, try to think, kind of you can do things on campus in the community or beyond. There's lots of ways to get these skills.
[00:18:40.130]Bethany Heaney: Okay, relationship building and collaboration.
[00:18:43.990]Bethany Heaney: We have. Yeah, NHRI leadership mentoring. That's like a youth development program that you could get involved with at UNL, you can become a Clifton Strengths coach. So maybe you've heard of like the strengths finder test.
[00:18:59.352]Bethany Heaney: That people take kind of to talk about. You know what their strengths are. At UNL You can become a coach to help other people grow in their strengths. So that could be something to look into.
[00:19:11.580]Bethany Heaney: you could become a TA for a class. That would help you with that relationship building and collaboration. But you know, could also lead to. I could see it, maybe leading to like some of those research opportunities. And that kind of thing, too, as you get to know, professors that you're working with
[00:19:28.947]Bethany Heaney: and then, yeah, becoming like a peer mentor or something along those lines.
[00:19:35.350]Bethany Heaney: Let me move my microphone
[00:19:37.630]Bethany Heaney: to the side.
[00:19:38.950]Bethany Heaney: That's okay. I'll try to talk kind of loud. Yeah, so those are some ideas there.
[00:19:45.670]Bethany Heaney: Okay? And then background knowledge and exposure to the law. I feel like, I do kind of get this question, too. It's just like, how do I get more experience, you know, working in specifically like the legal field, because it can be hard to find internships sometimes.
[00:20:02.530]Bethany Heaney: but being a legal runner is a great way to get experience like actually working at a law firm, you are probably gonna be doing, you know, kind of just helping out around the law firm. It's not.
[00:20:15.570]Bethany Heaney: Obviously you're not the lawyer there, right? But you get to observe what they're doing and be in that environment there at the office, helping out with.
[00:20:24.420]Bethany Heaney: you know.
[00:20:26.020]Bethany Heaney: it's kind of more like the paperwork side of things, or like helping working, working in the law firm
[00:20:31.850]Bethany Heaney: just with whatever they need in that setting.
[00:20:35.290]Bethany Heaney: being a legislative page as well. So getting experience working in either the State or Federal legislature.
[00:20:43.030]Bethany Heaney: we have a Pre Law club at UNL. That's something that you can find on the involve you website. So if you want to join the Pre Law club and meet some other students that are on the Pre law track. That could be a great option.
[00:20:58.710]Bethany Heaney: We have, yeah, all kinds of different options there, too, you know, summer programs to look into research labs, those kind of things as well.
[00:21:12.090]Bethany Heaney: Another helpful way to get some experience is to do some shadowing. Or we also recommend informational interviewing. So shadowing would be going to shadow. Yeah, a lawyer. And that would just be asking if you could come by their office that day, or maybe they're going to be out and about, and if you could join them on whatever they're doing that day
[00:21:33.950]Bethany Heaney: to learn a little bit about that career. This is definitely gonna be something kind of, you know, up to the lawyer. If they're open to having you come, there can be sensitive cases, and that kind of thing that
[00:21:45.470]Bethany Heaney: you would not be, you know, necessarily able to be in on. But it's always worth trying. They might let you come in for an afternoon and learn a little bit about what they're doing. So if you know a lawyer, I would definitely start with that person if you don't know a lawyer, you are welcome to call, you know, law offices around Lincoln, and see if coming in and shadowing would be something they would be willing to have you do. Just be prepared for a note just in case
[00:22:12.040]Bethany Heaney: informational interviewing, though you might have more success with that would be like sitting down with a lawyer and asking them some questions about like, what do you like about your job? What does a day in your job look like, you know. What do you recommend to me as a college student might be some things that I could be working on that kind of thing?
[00:22:32.475]Bethany Heaney: Again. You could start with someone that you know, or
[00:22:36.400]Bethany Heaney: call some offices. See if a lawyer would be willing to spend some time with you for that
[00:22:42.170]Bethany Heaney: getting part time jobs and internships. We've kind of talked about this already, but just kind of being mindful of what kind of jobs and experiences that you're getting. Not that, you know, working at Target or whatever is a bad job by any means, but trying to make sure that at least at some point in your time at UNL that you're getting a job or an internship that's giving you some kind of direct experience to get you ready for law school.
[00:23:10.500]Bethany Heaney: But even a job at Target or being a barista or whatever those things are, you're still gonna grow in your relationship building, maybe management skills, those kind of things. So I don't want to discount that. But also, just yeah, being mindful of trying to get some specifically Law experiences.
[00:23:27.620]Bethany Heaney: Okay, what we're gonna do next underneath that 1st paper that I gave you, you guys should have kind of a grid paper. And it's gonna be identifying areas for growth. So what I would like you to do. There's some of those competencies listed there
[00:23:42.340]Bethany Heaney: and then there's some boxes for, like what kind of experiences you've either that you've had, or maybe some ways you plan to grow. So I'll give you 5 min or so to write down some of those things, so I'll just kind of give you an example so like for communication, maybe under academic experiences, you could put down that you took public speaking.
[00:24:04.430]Bethany Heaney: or maybe under personal experiences, you could put down that. You're part of, you know. Mock trial Club.
[00:24:10.470]Bethany Heaney: Professional experiences might be
[00:24:14.770]Bethany Heaney: yeah, like a job that you've had, that you've had to use a lot of communication for, and maybe ways you plan to grow would be you know, you're going to join the Creative Writing Club or something you do not need to put something in every one of these boxes. This is meant to be to help you. So just think about some things you've done, and maybe some ways you want to grow, and I'll give you a couple of minutes to do that.
[00:27:42.250]Bethany Heaney: What are we doing so far? Do we need more time or got some things written down.
[00:27:48.540]Bethany Heaney: Doing, okay? Okay?
[00:27:51.166]Bethany Heaney: Yeah. How that activity go for us, thumbs up
[00:27:55.470]Bethany Heaney: medium. Okay? Okay, yeah. What are some areas that you guys want to grow in this semester this year? What are some that you noticed?
[00:28:09.390]Bethany Heaney: Get involved with like more research in my department? Okay, yeah. Getting involved in more research. It's great.
[00:28:16.930]Bethany Heaney: Couldn't
[00:28:19.580]Bethany Heaney: anything else you guys wanna be working on?
[00:28:27.810]Bethany Heaney: Did you guys notice anything that you've already been doing already to be getting some of these skills in?
[00:28:34.880]Bethany Heaney: Essentially.
[00:28:38.110]Bethany Heaney: Some, okay, okay, well, I hope it was helpful to just like, start thinking about what you want to be working on what you've already been doing. I bet you all have something that you've already been doing that you probably didn't even know like, Hey, this is helping me prepare for law school, and you're already doing it, which is awesome. So
[00:28:53.940]Bethany Heaney: I encourage you to keep thinking about that and keep taking steps to keep growing in those skills.
[00:29:00.820]Bethany Heaney: Okay, that's kind of just a list of those competencies again.
[00:29:05.380]Bethany Heaney: need to go through them again.
[00:29:08.930]Bethany Heaney: Okay, so what we need to think about next. So you've been thinking about getting experiences, how to get them, what you might want to be working on. But when it comes time to applying for law school. You're going to have to somehow talk about those experiences you want to get, you know. Make sure you're talking about them. So you kind of get the full, I guess, for lack of a better word, full credit for them that that you've put in.
[00:29:35.175]Bethany Heaney: So yeah, what would be some ideas. If you guys don't mind sharing. Yeah, how would you document some of these experiences? What would you do to remember these things when the application comes?
[00:29:50.720]Bethany Heaney: Put it on your resume. That's great.
[00:29:52.990]Bethany Heaney: So keeping your resume updated like throughout your time in college is a good idea.
[00:29:58.070]Bethany Heaney: Right? Like getting recommendation letters getting recommendation letters. Yup. So keeping in contact with those people that you've maybe been working alongside or volunteering for.
[00:30:08.790]Bethany Heaney: So that yeah, getting those letters. That's good.
[00:30:12.230]Bethany Heaney: So why do you think it's important to be documenting those experiences? I mean, obviously getting ready for the application? But can you think of any other reasons?
[00:30:24.950]Bethany Heaney: kind of the main reason, but
[00:30:29.870]Bethany Heaney: I think it helps you like. Reflect on your experiences, too, and kind of help you be mindful of what you might need to keep doing.
[00:30:37.850]Bethany Heaney: So we've got some ideas here. So yeah, what you're gonna wanna be tracking is like the contacts that you've
[00:30:48.180]Bethany Heaney: you know those people that you've been working with or alongside in the days that you were there, the organization or company or law firm, or that kind of thing you want to keep track of that.
[00:30:58.810]Bethany Heaney: And there's some tools that you can use for keeping track of that. So we've got resume on there. I also really like Sorry, the Excel idea, too. So just kind of having a column, for this is the day. This is the organization that I was with. This is how many hours I was there, but maybe something that I learned while I was there, just to kind of help. You remember
[00:31:20.470]Bethany Heaney: that. And why so obviously, job and school application resumes that we've talked about reference requests. So, as you know, definitely getting letters of recommendation is a good idea. But for some of those people you might not be asking them for like a little while, so keeping their contact information. So when that time comes, you have that
[00:31:44.144]Bethany Heaney: can also help you kind of figure out if you're not sure like with your major or minor it can kind of help you do some reflection and kind of see? Like, okay, maybe these are some things I'm interested in. I want to keep pursuing.
[00:31:57.890]Bethany Heaney: I can help you with writing. Your personal statement or essay is the other word that you might hear for that application.
[00:32:04.590]Bethany Heaney: And just yeah, like we've already mentioned, taking time to reflect on things, any questions on that at all, and keeping track of those experiences? No.
[00:32:14.947]Bethany Heaney: some more tips and tricks. So we've already talked about making sure to update your resume regularly reflecting on your experiences. You guys have already started doing that today. And then, yeah, keeping contact information for letters of recommendation. So y'all are on track with it, which is awesome.
[00:32:33.790]Bethany Heaney: and that is really all I have for today. Well, 2 things actually before you leave, if you could scan this and just fill out the quick evaluation.
[00:32:44.700]Bethany Heaney: And then also, before you leave.
[00:32:47.510]Bethany Heaney: if you'd like, I think it might be helpful for you to finish the last 2. The what do you still need to know about gaining experience? And what next steps are you going to take to gain experience on your little compass sheet there. Okay, and I will be up here for questions. I also have. If anyone is interested. We just had a ton of these like Pre-Law magazines sent to us.
[00:33:12.680]Bethany Heaney: I'll put them right here if you'd like to take them home. So
[00:33:16.880]Bethany Heaney: Thank you for coming today!

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Gaining Experience as a Pre-Law Student

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments