I have had the privilege of having diverse experiential learning opportunities in (almost) all the fields of law that I am interested in. I have worked in in state government for an administrative law judge division, participated in Loyola’s International Human Rights Practicum under Prof. Cesare Romano, and worked in both litigation and legislative affairs in multiple environmental nonprofits.

As an international student, getting to have such diverse work experiences was always a re-introduction into the specific, often unique, area of American law in a practical setting, not theoretical as it tends to be in the classroom. Having the guideline of the field placement department was always helpful and provided a good baseline for me as an international and as a first-generation law student.

Experiential learning allows you to first experience the tangible fruits of your labor; getting to work on real cases, especially as someone in public interest, can be extremely rewarding in terms of getting to see the impact of your efforts, and the lasting change you hope to provide. I’ll never forget the feeling of submitting my first assignment, and getting to see the photo of the person whose rights I was helping fight for.

Another benefit that I hadn’t initially anticipated was the feeling of ‘finding your footing’ in terms of the types of law you want to move forward with. This happens when you get to build your network, and actually get to try and practice the different legal skills that different areas require; do you like oral advocacy? Research and writing? Client interaction?

Although intimidating at first, experiential learning inside and outside of LLS is vital and has been an incredibly important but challenging part of law school, and I am grateful for having had such varied and rich experiences across my legal interests.

 

Being in huge classes where you feel like just one more head peeking out from behind a laptop screen might feel like you don’t have the opportunity to get to know your professors, but besides office hours and panicked emails the days before the exam, there are many chances to get to know the faculty.

For me, I found that the first big opportunity to get to know my professors was through clinics; in my case, the International Human Rights Practicum with Cesare Romano. I remember the moment I introduced myself to him as ‘Missy’ instead of ‘Michelle’, because most of my law school professors before then knew me as ‘Michelle’ or ‘Miss Elizalde’.

The other opportunity I’ve had has been slightly backwards. I met several adjunct professors through interviews and networking events through the Philippine American Bar Association. In its own unique way, it shows just how small the SoCal legal community is, and it removes some of the nerves around professors by seeing them outside of the classroom. Being able to speak both Tagalog and English with Phil Nulud who teaches a very successful course on Fashion Law, and seeing familiar names during OCI and other networking opportunities, has been a unique experience illustrative of LLS’s presence in the community, and the strength of the alumni network.

I wish I knew as a 1L that I would have significantly more interaction with professors than I initially expected, I believe it would have helped me ask more questions and been more willing to pick their brains for the wealth of advice and experience that they have. I know I will appreciate the connections I’ve had when I leave LLS, and know that I will always be able to reach out to the faculty for advice long after graduation.

Thinking about the things I “love” about Loyola; five things come to mind.

I love the campus; coming from my east coast undergraduate institution, which was sprawled along a city block, I enjoy being able to sit in the grass, watch my friends play with some of the soccer or footballs that you can borrow, and read under the sun outside Founder’s Hall or the Advocacy Center. All of the green contrasted against the bright colors of the buildings is a sight for sore eyes after exiting the parking structure.

I love the library; the sprawling bookshelves and the way that the light comes through the windows. During 1L especially, when I found that I would be campus for hours upon end, coming to the library was a refuge from the chaos and stress of the day.

I love how highly the faculty speak of their time at Loyola, and hearing the fondness that which they discuss the students they have met and taught. It is illustrative of the community cultivated at LLS.

I love the student organizations, how they offer small pockets of students with common interests, backgrounds, and passions inside and outside of the law that allow for us to connect and bond. Some of the people that I met during 1L through APALSA and ELS remain some of my closest friends at school.

And finally, I love the alumni network. Saying that I am a 3L at Loyola immediately connects me with so many others who speak highly of their time at the law school. Not only does this allow for me to grow personally in the relationships that I forge in this new field, but also professionally in the connections that may lead to future job opportunities and more as I start my career in LA.

Loyola’s wealth of courses seems overwhelming at first once you are able to branch out of the rigorous core requirements that 1L requires. As much as I had my sights on certain clinics and classes from before I started my studies that were major contributors in my decision to attend the law school, I wanted to explore as much as I could.

I luckily had several mentors from student organizations at LLS – namely, the Environmental Law Society, APALSA, and PILF – that had lists of their advice, favorite professors, and which classes to take in conjunction with one another.

What they told me created the skeleton of my schedule for the next four semesters; and I am forever grateful for their advice and words of encouragement as I followed down the path they had so recently walked; and I leapt at the opportunity to do the same when I heard familiar professors and courses being tossed around by 1Ls and 2Ls as I progressed at LLS.

As a first-generation law student, you sometimes feel lost or without guidance; everything’s uncharted. I’ve found that the most important resources that I’ve had since starting law school were my mentors and peers, from the above student organizations and from the Philippine American Bar Association. Leaning on others who had similar experiences to my own: be that through their interests in the legal profession or our shared cultural heritage, meant for easier decision-making when navigating my time at LLS, and I am certain will continue beyond graduation.

 

I’ve been bilingual for most of my life, having learned English and Tagalog as a child, and learned Spanish as a teenager. And if you ask me, law school feels very much like beginning a new foreign language from scratch at the age of 23, in a remarkably competitive environment.

 

It rewires the way you think slowly and somewhat subtly, and this transformation becomes more apparent when I visit home and am not always surrounded by my fellow law students or others in the legal profession.

 

The random ‘legalese’, the way my brain analyses things different immediately, how much more attentive I am while reading fiction because of months of reading casebooks; two and a half years later, I notice just how much my mind has adapted to the intensive study of law school.

 

Being able to go visit my home country this past winter break – one more time before I embark on my final semester and take the bar – was a worthwhile refresher on why I began law school to begin with, and also helped re-immerse myself in the other languages that faded away after months of learning the language of law school.

 

I wish I could talk to my 1L self now and tell her not to be so stressed about how fluent everyone else seems.

 

I think she’d be content to find out that the language of law school that seemed so intimidating in that moment, she would eventually learn to better comprehend and use with time and repetition, just like she learned the other three languages in her arsenal.

Being in large classes was a bit of a shock to my system coming from a relatively small undergraduate campus in Boston, where my largest class was 40 people during a seminar sophomore year. Coming to LLS, I was suddenly in classes with at least 70 other students, and the idea of my professors getting to know me seemed a little far-fetched.

Fast forward to 2L, I emailed my professors asking if they could help me raise money for typhoon relief in my home country. Not only did every single one of them say yes, but they allowed me to give a speech at the beginning of class. I was able to raise upwards of $1200 thanks to these efforts. It even became a bit of a game among my peers, guessing which one of my classes had raised the most money (It was Criminal Procedure with Marcy Strauss).

Since then, each one of those professors has remembered me, even when taking repeat classes with them in the following semester. I’ve enjoyed how much fun my professors seem to have while teaching, the unique relationship I can build with each one of them, and hearing about their career and life experiences in the legal profession.

The camaraderie you build with your peers in law school, especially in your 1L section, is different than I have experienced before. The closest comparison I have to it is the “competition team” at my Jiu Jitsu academy; because of the way you are all on a similar timeline and rigorous program to culminate in a final event (being final exams or competitions).

Exchanging outlines, study guides, flashcards and more are some of the ways that I have relied on and been relied on amongst my peers. Talking to your classmates and discussing how they approach your classes helps you figure out what works best for you. I never joined a formal study group, but I have been a part of many meet ups, panicked FaceTime calls the night before the exam, and text chains swapping notes and more.

One of my friends and I know exactly where we are in the job search and application process at any given time because we regularly proofread each other’s cover letters, emails and more. I credit much of my survival in law school to her and my mentors from APALSA, PILF and the Environmental Law Society. I know, even if I haven’t spoken to any of them in a while, that if I text them with a question, I’m sure to get a well thought out response within the day.

I’m proud of the network I built and the friends I have made at LLS, and I’d say that those I surround myself with are supportive and we are all genuinely invested in each other’s success.

My last exam ended on December 20th at 9:10pm and exactly 24 hours later I was on a plane from LAX to MNL. I brought all of my camera gear, my current read (“Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law” by Mary Roach) and my laptop to keep doing the occasional work for my Practicum when it came.

Flying home once a year is more than many Filipinos get and I’m grateful for every visit. When I go home, people jokingly call me “attorney” because it’s commonplace to refer to someone as their ‘title’, I never really understood why. But it makes me happy to see how proud my Lolo and Lola (tr: Grandpa and Grandma) are to make those jokes about me – as I am the first of their grandkids to pursue a legal education.

My Lola especially has encouraged me to pursue the law since she heard me convince my brother what his favorite color was at the age of 8. She would save newspaper clippings of Filipino law school rankings and give them to me as a teenager. Since I graduated from college during the pandemic, I’m especially excited for my family to see me graduate from law school in 2024.

The strangest thing every break has always been the sudden change from an intense exam season to the sudden relief of your last exam being over. I would frequently text my friends, despite being halfway around the world, thinking I missed something – I usually didn’t and just needed to switch off ‘exam mode’.

I’ve learned the importance of relaxing. This winter, I spent my time on my photography, enjoying time with my family, and learning about animals, given my upcoming externship with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. And of course, eating all the Filipino food I could.

In the Jiu Jitsu community, there is something called the “blue belt curse.” It is a phenomenon where practitioners quit after they have been promoted to their blue belt, and my promotion was a few months before the start of 1L.

I was terrified I would let go of my hobbies and fall victim to the “curse” because one of the law school myths that I found most often repeated was “you lose your social life during law school.”

On the contrary, that first semester that I spent taking this myth too seriously was probably my least successful one.

I never found that I lost my “social life” during 1L. While you learn the art of time management and prioritizing tasks in a different way than you are (often) used to, the camaraderie I found with my classmates on top of maintaining my hobbies was the best combination for my studies and mental health. You build relationships with other students, with mentors and others in the legal profession that stick with you. Personally, finding the Philippine American Bar Association did wonders for both my career and my homesickness.

Those first few months I would feel guilty spending an hour on the mats instead of doing work, but I soon learned that those hours are well spent on yourself, and the notion of “wasting time” was more hurting than helping me. The semester I spent training at least twice a week was my most successful one yet, both inside and outside of school.

You figure out what works for you, and the scary thought of “losing your social life” is not a guarantee, but more something in your control. Law school is a challenge that requires balance, and 1.5 years later I haven’t succumbed to the “blue belt curse” quite yet.

After 1L finals, I only had one week before the beginning of my internship at the California Public Utility Commission’s Administrative Law Judge Division. I was excited, but I also felt unprepared for my first legal internship. I kept asking myself: what should I bring? What is expected of me as a first-generation international student who just finished 1L? Will it just be like LRW? Is there anyone else from LLS I might connect with who can help me?

The very first judge that I met who helped me get set up was an LLS Alumna. We talked like old friends about her time at LLS, I asked about professors, and how the campus has changed, and she spoke highly of how the LLS network has served her since graduating. Meeting her helped me settle into my new role as a Legal Intern, and we stayed in touch over the summer.

As a legal intern, I wrote rulings, resolutions, and proposed decisions for the ALJ’s, as well as attended hearings, voting meetings, and weekly lunches where we networked with different people across the CPUC; attorneys and judges alike. Everyone who worked with us interns was so helpful and insightful. I would never have been able to meet so many of them, especially since the state agency was spread over three offices, but the intern supervisors ensured that we got to meet and hear from people with valuable experience and fascinating work.

Having finished 1L gave me common ground with everyone; judges and attorneys were quick to offer their 1L stories, experiences, and advice. They assured me that despite how overwhelming it might have been, I would look back on it fondly and that the work they found was rewarding and fulfilling; showing me I had much to look forward to.