{"200":{"first":"Kaitlyn","last":"Smearcheck"},"201":"kssmearcheck@widener.edu","202":"yes","203":" Full Time Student","204":"McClellandtown, Pennsylvania","205":"The Pennsylvania State University","206":"Risk Management: Enterprise Option","315":["No"],"316":"","207":"I am very interested in personal injury law, workers' compensation, and employment law. After practicing from any of these areas of law, I want to open my own practice in my hometown. Also, when I am older and more experienced, I want to run for County Common Pleas Judge in my area.","208":"I am a Student Bar Association 1L Student Representative RD for Section P. I am an active member of Phi Alpha Delta and this past year I have competed as an attorney for PAD\u2019s Mock Trial Team. I am also a member of Outlaw, Women\u2019s Caucus, National Lawyers Guild, and Trial Advocacy. Additionally, I am in the process of completing my Diversity and Inclusion for Law School Students Certificate from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.","209":"Volunteer Experience\r\n1. At Penn State, I was an active member of Penn State\u2019s Dance MaraTHON from 2015-2019. Each year I raised money to help families that have kids with cancer. Some of the volunteering events for THON that I did: canning (standing outside of businesses to accept donations); canvassing (walked through neighborhoods and went door to door to accept donations); promoted my THON donor drive on my social media (encouraged my friends and family members to make donations); worked as security and maintenance for three THON weekends; helped decorate THON families\u2019 rooms for THON visits and weekends; bought\/made food for bake sales and THON dinners; bought, wrapped, and delivered Christmas gifts to THON children at  Penn State\u2019s Hershey Medical Hospital.\r\n2. At Penn State, I was in the Alpha Delta Pi sorority and our national philanthropy was the Ronald McDonald House. I was a Ronald McDonald House volunteer from 2016 to 2019. From those three years, I collected soda pop tabs and made visits to Hershey, Pennsylvania\u2019s Ronald McDonald House where my sorority sisters and I donated toys, food, soda pop tabs, clothing, and bottled beverages. One time we even cooked a meal for the residents. \r\n3. At Penn State, I was a volunteer for Sisters on The Runway, a domestic violence awareness and prevention organization that raised money for domestic violence survivors in Centre County, Pennsylvania in 2018 and 2019. We met and talked with domestic violence survivors in our area and raised money for the shelter. We also put on a fashion show. We asked local stores to donate us clothing that we could borrow for the show and then we would return it unless someone from the show bought the clothing articles. The proceeds from the show went to the Centre County shelter. It was an awesome experience and I met a lot of strong-willed and inspiring people from it. \r\n\r\nWork Experience\r\n\r\n1. Before coming to Widener Commonwealth Law, I obtained a certificate in Paralegal Studies from Duquesne University\u2019s\r\n 2. Paralegal Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.\r\n3. I worked as a paralegal at a plaintiff\u2019s personal injury law office in downtown Pittsburgh for the past year. \r\n4. In the summer of 2018, I worked as a loan and credit department intern at Community Bank in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. \r\n5. In the summers of 2016 and 2017, I worked as a cave tour guide at Laurel Caverns Conservancy in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. I loved being a tour guide. I got to meet so many people around the world and had the awesome opportunity to teach them about geology and tell them the history of southwestern Pennsylvania. \r\n6. In 2014 and the summer of 2015, I worked at Wendy\u2019s and a bakery called Apple Annie\u2019s. (High School)\r\n","210":"There are several things I really like about Widener Law Commonwealth. First, I was so nervous that I would not be able to make many friends or connections because all of my classes would be on Zoom. Although Zoom has posed its challenges, I still have been able to make really good connections with fellow 1L students in my class as well as some upperclassmen through organizations, study groups, and social media. Second, every single one of my professors are brilliant and very willing to help out in any way that they can. They create a classroom that is inclusive and that all questions are welcome. I really appreciate having the professors I have had for my first year. It has made my first year of law school and zoom school less stressful.They provide us with great insight and teach us many things that we will experience in real life practice and for the bar exam. Third, I have had the chance to do so much in my first-year of law school and at Widener. I have been able to be the representative of my class for SBA, be an attorney for a mock trial team, and take a diversity and inclusion class with other law students across the country. I am so glad that I was able to do so many things my first year with everything else being limited around me. Lastly, I love the Harrisburg area. I moved here with my dog Artie. There is so much to do here. Artie and I go for walks around the local trails and parks. The restaurants around here are very good too! And this area is filled with so much history as well! This is a great place for a lot of people, especially someone like me who has moved here from a super small town. Harrisburg isn\u2019t too big or too small, it's just right!\r\n"}