The veterinarian turned lawyer

This week’s discussion on access to higher education made me think about my journey navigating higher education institutions and the benefits, troubles, and success that my undergraduate education and law school have brought me thus far.

When I first decided to attend college, the last field I thought about pursuing was law. I was sure I was destined for something else—I wanted to be an equine veterinarian. For most of my early childhood, I grew up riding horses (western style, to be exact). My love for horses is what actually motivated me to go to college; I wanted to “save the animals.”

However, when I got to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), I quickly realized that being a biology major wasn’t going to cut it for long. (Spoiler alert, like most folks who pursue law, I wasn’t very great at math, let alone science). So, I stopped taking my biology major courses and started taking philosophy and political science classes. Ultimately, these courses sparked my interest, and I found myself fascinated by comparative politics, philosophy of law (which eventually became my minor), and the history of American politics. 

My professors at UNLV encouraged me to think critically about the issues often discussed in class. I soon began taking classes on immigration policy, women and the law, philosophy of the city, and the list goes on. See, although I grew up in an extremely progressive household, I never learned about things like intersectional feminism or systemic racism—I knew these phenomenons existed, but I certainly didn’t know that they had a place in academia. 

As time progressed, I started to find myself excelling in school—I loved engaging with the material and taking on tough conversations with those whose opinions differed from mine. I found myself becoming immersed in different grassroots initiatives and student organizations—I was involved in everything from our school's NAACP chapter to the Planned Parenthood student group “Students United For Reproductive Justice.”

I loved every minute of it. I never knew that I would find myself feeling so content about my place in higher education. This is because I wasn’t the perfect high school student by any means. I didn’t get the highest grades or participate in any extracurriculars, but I knew that in college, none of that mattered and that the only thing that would hold me back was myself (and the Financial Aid Office from time to time). From my sophomore year onward, I seized every opportunity that was presented to me—I traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with members of Congress about reproductive rights issues; I received awards for academic excellence, and for the first time, I felt as though I was actually doing something to create change in my community. 

My experiences eventually led me to pursue a career in law, and had it not been for all of those encounters in undergrad--the traveling, the academic rigor, the intellectually stimulating conversations—I would not be here sitting in this King Hall lecture room today (well maybe I would, but still the path would have differed).

I say all of this to say that whether or not we encourage first-generation students to pursue higher education can have long-standing implications for their futures. The truth is that, for many of us, college allows us to experience new things; to go beyond the bounds of our communities and everything that we thought we knew to bright new ideas and challenges. For many people, college is the first time they will come across people from different cultures, backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses. 

And to be clear, while I think that it is important for us to be transparent with first-generation students about issues such as student loan debt and job security, we should not completely discourage them from pursuing higher education simply because it will be harder for them to access. It should also not be lost on us that, low-income students of color, can especially benefit from obtaining a college education. As Misty Starks states in Forward Times:

It’s no secret that students who graduate from college make more money over their lifetime – about 60 percent more – than students who do not earn a degree. And college graduates are more likely to find a job with a higher starting salary than their non-degreed counterparts.

With this in mind, we are doing students of color a disservice by taking higher education off the table for them. Rather than telling them not to go to college, we can simply make the process of getting into college more accessible. 

We do not put pressure on affluent kids to “pick a trade” right out of high school, so we should afford first-generation kids that very same opportunity—to go to college and to learn about the things that interest them in this world; to figure out their “why,” and to explore academia for the sake of doing so. And maybe then, we’ll have more equine veterinarians turned lawyers.