{
    "image": "",
    "content": "<h1>Kayla L. Rost &rsquo;16</h1>\r\n<p><img src=\"irl://2501//\" alt=\"Photo of Kayla Rost\" style=\"float: left;\" width=\"300\" />On the morning of her college graduation, Kayla Rost learned that she had one more hurdle to overcome before her dream of attending Widener University Commonwealth Law School in the fall could come true.</p>\r\n<p>&ldquo;I had really good grades in college, was a pre-law minor, and was in marching band and many other academic and service activities,&rdquo; Rost said. &ldquo;But my LSAT [Law School Admission Test] scores weren&rsquo;t great, so instead of just rejecting me, through the Trial Admissions Program Widener gave me a chance to prove that I could handle law school.&rdquo;</p>\r\n<p>A native of Cambria County, Rost had wanted to be a prosecutor since becoming active with her college Law and Justice Society and her experience with a mock trial competition. She wanted to stay in Pennsylvania for law school and had chosen Widener for its proximity to the Capitol.</p>\r\n<p>After reading the email from Widener, Rost said she knew immediately what she had to do.</p>\r\n<p>&ldquo;I graduated that morning, and headed to Harrisburg and the TAP program a few weeks later,&rdquo; she said.</p>\r\n<p>Rost said that at first, she would look around the classroom at her fellow TAP students, wondering which ones would make it.</p>\r\n<p>&ldquo;But over time, taking Contracts, Torts, and Legal Methods was really interesting and all of us students started hanging out, studying together,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It was a great intro to law school.&rdquo;</p>\r\n<p>Rost passed. She said that TAP gave her a real boost academically, which led to good grades and an internship after her first year with the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission, working for now Chairman, Gladys Brown Dutrieuille.</p>\r\n<p>&ldquo;Within a year of college graduation, I was getting paid to work in the legal field with Commissioner Brown, learning so much about utility law and administrative law,&rdquo; Rost said. She simultaneously did an unpaid internship at the Pennsylvania Board of Pardon and Parole. Rost passed the Pennsylvania bar exam on her first try.</p>\r\n<p>Today Rost is a prosecutor in the Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement at the PUC,&nbsp; enforcing the Public Utility Code and PUC Orders. After graduating near the top of her class, Rost clerked for Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge P. Kevin Brobson &rsquo;95 after law school, and did a stint in private law practice in Maryland before heading back to Pennsylvania and the PUC.</p>\r\n<p>Rost&rsquo;s advice to would-be Widener Law Commonwealth students facing the choice of attending TAP is to take it as a learning opportunity.</p>\r\n<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be afraid,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Use it to your advantage. It got me prepared for law school and gave me something to prove.&rdquo;</p>",
    "box_content": "<h5>WANT TO SHARE YOUR STORY?<br /><br /></h5>\r\n<p><strong>Alumni Spotlight Contact</strong><br /><a href=\"mailto:cwalumni@widener.edu\">cwalumni@widener.edu</a></p>"
}