There are many meaningful opportunities at law school. As you make your own decisions about which you will pursue this year, I wanted to share a brief glimpse at my experience with one of these, the LAWS (“Law in Action Within Schools”) program.
Three reasons I volunteer with LAWS:
1. I LOVE working with young people/youth/kids.
2. I want to give back to my community. I don’t have huge amounts of money or prestige, but when I walk into a high school classroom, I know I am sharing something extremely valuable that I do have a lot of – experience.
3. I want to be a part of increasing diversity in law schools and the legal profession. As per point #2, I am lacking in some of the “big, powerful” resources that tend to wield influence. However, I believe that one of the most effective ways we can increase diversity is by showing young people that the path to law school/professional school/university is available to them and a possibility they can seize. My way of doing this is standing up in front of a group of Toronto high school students, sharing my own post-high school path and delivering the message “I did this and I know that if you want to, you can do this too.”
Christina Roussakis is a 3L student at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, currently on exchange in France.
