To prepare for my first Civil Procedure class, I had to complete my Professor’s Intro Survey. To the question, “What is something that you love so much you will do it over and over?” I responded, “Watch Derry Girls.” However, my real response is “Doom scroll on TikTok.” When I had more free time this summer, I browsed through LawSchoolTok, TravelTok, and BookTok.

While some creators on LawSchoolTok emphasized how important it is to relax before 1L starts, others shared tips for resume writing and networking events. Both sides were satisfied when I volunteered to sort donations at The Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles every Monday. This once-weekly commitment allowed me to build community with those impacted by the housing crisis and contemplate landlord/tenant law as an area I may want to practice in the future while granting me enough free time to sufficiently “break” before school started. Towards the end of the summer, though, I increased my commitment and began volunteering as an English literacy tutor in the shelter’s education and career department every Wednesday.

From TravelTok, I learned the best places to visit internationally and locally. When I traveled to Puerto Vallarta with my mom and sister in mid-June, for instance, that side of TikTok led us to one of the best beaches we have ever visited, Conchas Chinas. When we returned to Los Angeles, TravelTok guided my best friend and me to different places and experiences that made me feel like a tourist again. We visited several coffee shops to determine which one made the best-iced matcha lattes (1. Meccha Matcha in Cerritos, 2. Coffee Code in Norwalk, and 3. Stereoscope in Long Beach), saw a gaggle of geese as we rode bikes through El Dorado Park, and enjoyed concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

Finally, BookTok allowed me to rediscover my love for reading and stay on track with my Goodreads 2024 Reading Challenge. Before Garratt v. Dailey and Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 24, there was The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami. Although my reading this Fall was more academic than recreational, I have added many books to my TBR, or To Be Read shelf, that I plan on getting to after surviving (maybe even thriving) through finals, such as The Little Liar by Mitch Albom and The Eye by Vladimir Nabokov.

I first heard the term “double lion” during orientation from a graduate of both Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School and, ever since, I’ve aspired to join that pride.

My journey to become a double lion unintentionally began in Fall 2018 when I attended Loyola Marymount University. I did so for two reasons. First, my older sister graduated from LMU in 2015 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and, as an annoying younger sibling who takes her family role seriously, I copied her—or, more politely, I followed in the footsteps of my lifelong role model. Second, LMU’s emphasis on the encouragement of learning, the education of the whole person, and the service of faith and the promotion of justice resonated deeply with my own values. While my sister inspired me to excel in the classroom as an International Relations major and Peace & Justice Studies minor, LMU encouraged me to go beyond the classroom and build community with the Marians Service Organization, the Alternative Breaks Program, and the El Espejo Mentoring Program.

After earning my title as “single lion” in Spring 2022, I started work as a behavior technician in applied behavior analysis. I intentionally stepped into this non-legal role before entering law school because of my interest in serving the underserved and mentorship experience that taught me the value of centering a student in their development. I had the privilege of working with children with autism at an early intervention program in Alhambra and an elementary school in Inglewood. And, while I taught them fine motor and verbal skills, they taught me how to push through the frustration of “getting things wrong,” by squeezing out a few tears or breaking to eat a snack before trying again—an important lesson as I approach my first law school finals. This challenging but rewarding experience also exposed me to the inequities surrounding neurodivergent student’s education and joined other legal interests I hope to explore in the next three years: post-conviction relief and eviction defense.

I plan to indulge these interests—by, hopefully, participating in clinics such as Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic, Loyola Project for the Innocent, or the Shriver Landlord Tenant Clinic— and non-legal interests such as reading, traveling, and bust-a-gut laughing on my journey of becoming a double lion.

I was fortunate in having exposure with various attorneys prior to attending law school. However, I had not yet encountered anyone who practiced in the field of my interest – family law. Therefore, my underlying goal in law school has been to make connections with individuals interested in or currently practicing family law.

Fortunately, I discovered the Child and Family Law Society and actively check for any emails regarding upcoming events. My trying schedule has allowed me to attend one event they hosted and I was thrilled that I had the opportunity to take part in this informative presentation. The event included two Loyola alumni currently practicing family law. They shared their daily experiences, including their challenges and how they dealt with overcoming them. I found it particularly interesting to hear about the emotional toll that these types of cases can have on a practicing attorney and tips on how they deal with their intense emotions.

My career counselor at Loyola has been incredibly resourceful in navigating me towards a career in family law. She encouraged me to look into classes and clinics offered by Loyola geared towards the field and helped me find a list of classes that would be useful for a career in family law. Based on this, I created a tentative schedule of classes to register for in Fall 2024, combined with my required courses and bar-prep classes.

Overall, my experience at Loyola thus far in relation to my field of interest has been relatively positive. I do admit that I took hold of the reins and actively searched for experiences and information specifically aligned with family law. I certainly feel grateful that many questions I had regarding the field have been answered since I started attending law school.

This semester I am externing for the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps. This experience has reminded me about how vast the legal world is and all the various kinds of work that await us after graduation. Taking an externship is an incredibly valuable experience as a law student. No amount of research in the world will ever compare to the knowledge you gain from experience. Being able to sit in a room full of people who have perfected their craft in a particular practice area, or who have war stories about times in a courtroom is exciting and invigorating. Not only do you get to learn from them but sometimes you get to experience it for yourself. Being an attorney is more than just the reading, and externships give us a taste of what life after law school is like. In my externship I’ve gotten to explore the perimeters of the base I work out of because of potential environmental claims. That is something that never occurred to me happening!

Last semester I was able to extern at the LA District Attorney’s Office as part of the Poehls/Hobbs Practicum. I had some of the most valuable networking experiences in my entire law school career. The people that you meet in your externships can become recommenders for your letters of recommendation, or your future employers for future jobs, and even more importantly people that understand what you are going through as a student and later an attorney. I may not have had access to extern for the LADA’s office had not I participated in the Poehls/Hobbs Practicum. Loyola provides its students with incredible opportunities, we just have to be driven enough to seek them out!

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.

I have sought out a lot of experiential experiences while at Loyola. Last year, I participated in a clinic (see an earlier post from me on this experience!), and in the fall of my 3L, I externed with the US DOJ’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.

Classes at Loyola are so helpful to do my best work in my experiential opportunities. In my clinic, I was researching international legal issues, so only a couple of my doctrinal classes were applicable in my work. However, all my classes provided me with a critical legal foundation that allowed me to do my best work and serve the client in my work. This fall, at the DOJ, several of my classes directly informed my work. I consistently relied on my evidence and criminal procedure outlines, and I pulled on other knowledge to research, write memos, and assist the attorneys in their work.

Beyond class and doctrinal learning, my experiential learning opportunities are incredibly valuable to me. I have developed skills that I would otherwise not have had the chance to work on. I feel incredibly confident when I am assigned something at a job or in class that is more practical because I have such a wide range of experiences.

The experience is valuable, but I also love getting out of the classroom and putting my newly learned skills and knowledge to practice. It’s fun to work in the law (at least to me), especially after learning so much about it. And the experiential jobs have helped to solidify certain legal principles for me; rather than remaining in the abstract, the skills and legal ideas become tangible and useful. It is a pretty powerful experience.