HI!
My name is Sara McCourt and I am a brand new contributor to the Faculty of Law Blog! In preparation for the work I will be doing with Professor Moin Yahya for this Winter’s Law & Social Media pilot project, I will be posting as regularly as I can manage on whatever topics come to mind. I’ve never written for a blog before so I'm basically making this up as I go along. I'll always be open to suggestions and discussions, so please take any opportunity to comment and offer any sort of feedback you have!
So, to start off I’m going to tell you a little bit about myself and how I came to be here writing to you on the University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog. From why I wanted to go to law school to my "pre-law" education, and from my 1L experiences to my work with Student Legal Services, I'll quickly get you up to speed on who I am and why I'm here!
My parents are members of the legal community; my Dad is a lawyer and my Mom is a legal assistant. When I was a little girl they worked incredibly hard to build a firm together. Once the business began to run smoothly, my mother stayed home to raise my sisters and I. My father has been practicing law my whole life. The legal community brought my parents together, put food on my table and has been an ever-present part of my life. Growing up around legal practices and spending summers as ‘Assistant to the Legal Assistant’, I always knew I wanted to be a full-fledged member of the legal community one day.
I started undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Arts as soon as I graduated high school. After taking Philosophy 101 in my first year I fell in love (or, as others would argue, became obsessed) and took eight philosophy classes in my second year at the university. At this point I also took my earliest opportunity to apply to law school. I wrote the LSAT in October of my second year knowing I needed at least a 90th percentile score for my application to be considered so early and worked hard to keep my GPA over the required 3.7. Thanks to my enthusiasm for philosophy, a huge LSAT workbook I treated like a religious text, and my very best (but still totally underwhelming) attempt at self-promotion in the form of the Supplemental Admissions Form, I was accepted into our Faculty of Law starting in 2013!
The first semester of 1L was exciting but definitely very scary. Between the pressure to get involved, learning to read case law, adjusting to the idea that I would no longer get straight As and simply not knowing where I stood, I was a bit of a nervous wreck. At the time I felt anxious because I was only 19 in a faculty full of students that were all older and more accomplished than I was. In retrospect, I think we probably all have our own insecurities that in our own minds justify the anxiety that goes along with so-called “1L Hell”. By the time midterms were marked and back my skin was already thicker and the second semester felt much less intimidating. I couldn’t say it was a breeze, but I survived, made friends and learned a lot about the law, the law school and myself.
One of the best parts of my 1L experience was being a part of Student Legal Services. Throughout the year I volunteered with both the Civil and Legal Education projects. Working civil shifts and answering phone calls and helping people with their problems and simply volunteering my time to an organization that was helping the community was an amazing experience. Whenever I would give lectures with Legal Education dayleaders I was always pleasantly surprised and touched at how much our time and information was appreciated by members of the community. Student Legal Services, to me, was integral to having a well-rounded law school experience. I enjoyed it so much that I applied to continue working with them over the summer - which brought me to the here and now, working with the Legal Education project!
Working with the Legal Education project at SLS is a law student’s summer dream job. I love that I have gotten to meet and get to know other law students who are each amazing, hard-working individuals. I love being in a creative environment, researching all different areas of law and helping people everyday. I love going on our outreaches. Working with shelters in the inner city, meeting people, chatting with them, getting to know them and helping them the best I can is a hugely eye-opening and fulfilling experience. Also, as much as I enjoyed the file work I did during the Civil shift, the Legal Education project has been an opportunity to work with the law every day in a way that is totally different than the private practice I grew up around and anticipate doing after I get my degree.
So, I’ve been spending the summer working at the best summer job ever, hanging out with my boyfriend (a student from the Engineering faculty here at the U of A who is currently working on campus doing Engineering research), endlessly tweeting or whatever it is you are supposed to call posting on twitter (usually about feminism, fitness, politics or random silliness), trying to learn the basics of coding, and now writing to you on the Faculty of Law Blog!
More than anything I’m really excited to hear from you all! Are you a law student? Tell me about your 1L experience! Do you want to be a law student one day? Tell me what you’re excited for, what you’re scared for and ask me anything you might want to know! Are you completely unrelated to the legal field? Talk to me about whatever you want! And please, if you have any ideas for articles or topics you’d like to see on the blog, or any suggestions at all let me know! I’ll be writing again soon, but its been a pleasure to introduce myself! Hope to hear from you soon!
Sara McCourt
