April 15-19

This week at DGS and Pre-Law, I did most of the usual activities: updating social media, attending staff meetings, updating and making edits to the newsfeed, and putting together visually appealing slides for the TV lobby. I also went to a pre-law workshop on the topic of preparing resumes and personal statements for law applications. I thought the presentation was very informative (and well-attended despite the awful weather). The pre-law advisor did a nice job of giving specifics. I gave her on critique afterwards because about 3/4 of the presentation was about the personal statements and the resumes seemed tacked on at the end. I just told her to clarify at the beginning of the presentation why she has broken the presentation down like that so that the students understand and do not feel like resumes were an after thought. I also am working on getting the CDs made for the  advisors. I helped the Pre-Law intern divide up law school look books also. There is a small pre-law waiting area with pre-law look books that students can get information from. We get so many every year but they are becoming pointless because most of the books can now be found online. I helped the intern organize them . It seemed like a waste to have so many look books when students can find them online. Plus, it seems very expensive for the schools to create and distribute.

I spent about 12 hours this week at DGS, Pre-Law, reading, and blogging.

This week I read about a class that incorporates content and theory with civic engagement. As a part of the class, the students have to go watch public court cases and reflect on all aspects of the experience. It is up to them to navigate the courtroom and the proceedings and how to figure out when and where to go to observe. Students report having learned a great deal from this experience and many students earned an internship directly from observing because they met public defenders, judges, etc. while observing. Many students were surprised at how welcomed they were by people who work with the courts. This type of class is the exact example I discussed in my book report. Students reported that they learned whether they wanted to pursue law or not, and I think a real-world experience like this class offered is something that UIUC should implement. The director of Pre-Law now does a course similar to this, but more students should have access to the opportunities to learn in a real-world context and be able to apply what they learn in the classroom to that opportunity. Unrelated to this article, this type of course could also improve relationships between the university and the community, which is good for the reputation of the school.


McLauchlan, J. S. (2011). The courtroom as classroom: Integrating civic engagement in public law courses. Journal for Civic Commitment, 17, 1-17.