Bluefield College pre-law students Edric Folden and Crystal Conner, along with criminal justice professor Kim Farmer recently attended the Virginia State Bar’s Southern Virginia Minority Pre-Law Conference at Washington and Lee University’s School of Law in Lexington.
More than 60 prospective law students from various undergraduate schools across Southwest Virginia attended the Pre-Law Conference, designed to encourage minority undergraduate students to consider the legal profession as a career.
“It was a great eye-opener to future law students,” said Folden. “It really gave me a chance to embrace the law school environment. I got a chance to meet some very powerful people from law schools and firms. I would completely recommend future law students to attend.”
The Minority Pre-Law Conference exposed the prospective law students to all phases of a legal career, from the law school application process to the selection of career opportunities. Specifically, the students participated in workshops and seminars on “The Law School Admissions Process,” “An Inside Perspective on How to Get Accepted,” and “Preparing for the LSAT with Kaplan”
“In addition to the valuable insight into the law school experience provided by current law students, as well as the comments from those currently in law careers, I particularly enjoyed the tips and advice provided by the Kaplan representative on taking the LSAT,” said Dr. Farmer. “Any help I can provide to our students in preparing for this test, especially the logic questions, is very important to me as an advisor.”
As part of the conference, the students also took part in a mock law class, heard from a panel of current law school students, and discussed a variety of law school topics with experts like Anthony Giorno, first assistant United States attorney; Michael Hu Young, board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association; Inga Watkins, professor at Howard University’s School of Law; and George W. Shanks, president-elect of the Virginia State Bar.
“This conference was great,” said Conner. “It definitely gave me an idea of what law school is about and will definitely help me in making a decision on whether I want to go to law school or not. The thing I liked the most about the conference was when we had the chance to chat with law students and get stories and advice about law school.”
As pre-law students at Bluefield College, both Conner and Folden are criminal justice majors. She is also a member of the women’s varsity cross country team, and he is a member of the men’s varsity basketball team. Both are from Richmond, Virginia.