Weekly Blog #13

Due to the denied mentor request last week by Professor Natalie Nanasi, I have had to continue to find contacts to email and get in touch with in order to conduct more informational interviews. Despite this minor drawback, I feel that my denied mentor request has fueled my motivation to seek more interviews and create more connections with professional attorneys. I have been able to do this mainly through LinkedIn messaging and email.

I feel that since I have created my LinkedIn account at the beginning of ISM, I have truly put myself out there. As a result, I have crafted a network of nearly sixty connections with professionals in the law field. I personally find great value in beginning a network of connections at such a young age, and feel that it will be highly beneficial in the future. I have also learned through ISM, that the most effective way to make new connections is through the professionals I have met and conducted interviews with, and I believe that these are great assets when spurring my career as a human rights lawyer.

So far, with the help of Coach Goff, I have been able to contact a variety of attorneys, and have humbly asked each of them for an informational interview. These attorneys include, Ms. Dianne Carlson, employment lawyer, global legal consultant, and community development advocate at Carson Legal, PLLC and David Winn, Vice President and Director of The Center for American and International Law. I also intend to get in contact with Dr. Rick Halperin, the director of the Human Rights Program at SMU. Towards the end of our interview, as well as in follow-up emails, Professor Nanasi gave me the contact information of Dr. Rick Halperin, and encouraged me to contact him because she believed that he could assist me in my original work.

Above all, it is my goal to have a guaranteed mentor, at the very latest, by next semester.