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<p>First-year law student Katie Paradise first found the love for international business and helping people when she was a volunteer in the Peace Corps after graduating from Temple University.</p>
<p>Paradise spent two years in Senegal, West Africa helping local entrepreneurs grow their business and establishing a scholarship and camp for girls in the area.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I worked a lot with youth development,&rdquo; said Paradise. &ldquo;Premature marriage happens a lot, so we started a scholarship and camp for the girls that focused on education empowerment. We wanted to encourage studying and health education in the community. This is what I was most passionate about.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Her experience in the Peace Corps helped to cement the passion to go to law school and possibly focus on international or immigration law.</p>
<p>Paradise&rsquo;s story is just one of the many of passion and experience that the incoming class of 130 students in 2017 brings to the law school.</p>
<p>The incoming class of first-year law students at Widener Law Commonwealth is one of the most diverse to enter the law school. Representing 18 states and two countries, the age of students&rsquo; ranges from 20 through 61 and more than thirty percent of the class identifies as a person of color.</p>
<p>In his address welcoming students to the profession, the Hon. P. Kevin Brobson &rsquo;95 told incoming law students that the legal profession was one people look to for comfort.</p>
<p>&ldquo;People don&rsquo;t go to architects, they go to the courts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;People look to us to protect their rights.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He added that being a lawyer and being in the legal profession means that a person needs to be able to see the path and have the ability to look at situations with a clear view and different perspective.</p>
<p>Inder Deep Paul &rsquo;16 addressed the incoming students from the perspective of a recent graduate. His advice encouraged law students to experiment with all different types of law and to be &ldquo;the best law student&rdquo; over the next three or four years.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I have three pieces of advice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There is no alternative to hard work. You are not always banned from having fun. Always focus on the big picture of the ultimate goal.&rdquo;</p>