Washington University School of Law collaborates with Soldan
Special to the American
During the fall of 2007, Washington University Law School formed a joint collaboration with Soldan International High School where lawyers from the Mound City Bar Association, law students at Washington University and 18 Soldan juniors and seniors worked on a case looking at the state of public education in America.
The program, developed by law professor Kim Norwood, was designed to get high school students interested in going to law school and law school students interested in mentoring. The tool used to accomplish both goals was a law school course created by Norwood on Race, Education and the Legal Profession.
Law students in that class spent the first half of the semester studying, researching and writing papers on the state of public education in America and its impact on minority races, ethnicities, cultures and economically depressed populations. The law school course then linked with Soldan.
Norwood called that project the “LEAPS” (the Law Exposure And Professionalism Strategies) program. It involved lawyers talking to Soldan students about corporate culture, professionalism, life in a law firm. It also featured law students talking to the Soldan students about getting into law school, law school life and discussing their public education research projects with them.
The Soldan students were then “hired” into law firms. They were taught case strategy and theory development by the lawyers and law students, then assigned a case to work on for the rest of the semester.
The case, modeled on a Georgetown University School of Law case, centered on an illiterate high school senior suing his high school and school district for the failure to educate him. Students had to deal with whether a tort of educational malpractice should be recognized, whether public education should be equal throughout a state, what responsibilities to get an education lie with the students themselves and their parents or guardians and related matters.
LEAPS culminated with the students’ tour of the courthouse, listening to powerful speeches by Judge Michael Calvin and Judge Jimmie Edwards, and the argument of their case before Judge David Mason.
By the end of the semester, the Soldan students learned valuable lessons about staying in school, the value of an education, the need for people to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, and the responsibility of the child and parent to get an education by any means necessary. Students met lawyers and law students, many of whom looked like them and all of whom cared about them and mentored them.
Although the program for the fall semester officially concluded on December 1, 2007, law students have asked, and will voluntarily continue, to mentor the students next semester and will offer workshops on getting into college and how to access resources to help students prepare for SAT and ACT exams, resume writing, interview skills and the like.
An email from Brid-gette Mahone, one of the students at Soldan, says it best:
“Thank you SOOOO MUCH for allowing us the chance to collaborate with Washington University Law School. I enjoyed the experience of working with all of you. Because of this experience, I have decided to attend law school at Washington University. Thanks again, and I will miss all of you!”
