My experience at the PLEN seminar for Women, Law, and Legal Advocacy seminar has helped solidify my future career goals. Coming into this seminar, I did not know what to expect. My school, the University of Florida, does not have a PLEN chapter. While searching the internet for organizations catering to women interested in law, I found PLEN. As the only national organization with the sole focus of preparing college women for leadership in the public policy arena, I knew I wanted to become involved.
Being a leader means doing things with others in mind. Being a leader as a woman requires a special amount of preparation and dedication.
Upon hearing that I received the scholarship to attend PLEN, I was ecstatic. I had been given the opportunity to meet, network, and learn from an inspiring group of women leaders who were at the forefront of their careers.
How could you not be inspired hearing from someone like Gina Adams, our keynote speaker, whose entire career has been contradictory to what people may have expected from her?
As someone who grew up with everything I needed but nothing I wanted, her story resonated with me. I realized that law school doesn’t have to equal a lawyer in a corporate firm. It can mean opening a world of opportunities for myself. It’s showing people that I have the skill set they may doubt I have otherwise.
The PLEN Women, Law, and Legal Advocacy seminar exceeded my expectations. I was able to meet many other strong young women my age with the same struggles and same aspirations, women who I stay in contact with now and can only hope to cross paths with in the future.
The PLEN seminar eased my anxiety about wanting to be a lawyer but not dedicating myself to law school right away. The young, successful professional law clerks we had the chance to hear from at the Supreme Court had all waited before starting law school. After attending this seminar, I am certain in my desire to attend law school and even more certain in my desire to make a difference.
PLEN gave me the chance to see Washington, D.C. behind the scenes. I know I would not have been able to have a trip like this if it were not for PLEN giving me this scholarship, and because of this scholarship I have been given a breathe of fresh air and new found determination to achieve my goals of graduating from law school and working in the public sector in Washington, D.C.
Ana-Katarina Stanic attended the 2016 Women, Law, and Legal Advocacy seminar as a freshman at the University of Florida.