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<p>The School of Law&rsquo;s summer <a href="ipl://259//W10=">Jurist Academy program</a>&nbsp;for undergraduate students provided a two-week immersion experience in the life of a law student. The program is designed for students who come from backgrounds that are typically underrepresented in the legal profession.</p>
<p>The program, now in its eighth year, also provided its 17 participants with a better understanding of what the life of a practicing attorney looks like. The 2015 class included students from schools in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina.</p>
<p>The 2015 class took classes in &ldquo;how law thinks,&rdquo; legal writing, criminal law, property, and a law school admissions test preparation course. Some classes had simulated exams. The experience also included a field trip to Richards Layton &amp; Finger, P.A. in Wilmington, a program sponsor, where students met with Renee Mosley, a summer associate at the firm who will be a third-year student at Widener Law Delaware this fall. She attended the Jurist Academy in 2012.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was tremendous for these students to meet Renee and see how the Jurist Academy experience can be the first step in a successful legal education,&rdquo; program Director <a href="ipl://20//WyIxMTUiXQ==">Sydney Howe-Barksdale</a>, an assistant professor of legal methods, said.</p>
<p>The 2015 Jurist Academy also exposed participants to discussions on career development, passing the bar and what it is like to work as an attorney. Alumni Tabitha Castro &rsquo;02 and Andres Gutierrez de Cos &rsquo;07 talked with them about the challenges of law school and building a Spanish-speaking boutique law firm in Delaware &ndash; a rarity. Albert Dandridge, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, talked with the students too, explaining successful lawyers are competent, likable and bring in business.</p>
<p>The law school is grateful to program sponsors:</p>
<ul>
<li>Morris James LLP</li>
<li>Ballard Spahr LLP</li>
<li>The Multi Cultural Judges and Lawyers Section of the Delaware State Bar Association</li>
<li>Richards Layton &amp; Finger, P.A.</li>
<li>Skadden Arps Slate Meagher &amp; Flom LLP</li>
<li>Young Conaway Stargatt &amp; Taylor, LLP</li>
<li>Schnader Harrison Segal &amp; Lewis LLP</li>
</ul>