My role as SBA President
Board of Alumni and Faculty Meetings
My job is to represent your interests as students. The most direct way that occurs is my position as SBA president on the Board of Alumni and Faculty Committee.
In regards to the Board of Alumni, we meet about every two months (our next meeting is the morning after Dine with Alumni this week) to move on the goals of the Board. One of my goals has been to improve professional opportunities for students by improving coordination between students and our most dedicated alumni. Now that work is shifting to where I will need students who want to work directly with alumni over the winter break and summer to put together networking events. The event planning is handled by the alumni, but where they need the most help is in informing and gathering students (especially outside of the Sacramento area).
Currently we have chapters in the following regions seeking input on whether students wish to have a local event (my job is to connect you to those alumni, so if any of these areas interest you, please contact me):
-Orange County
-Los Angeles
-San Diego
-San Francisco
-Reno
-Washington DC
-Central Valley
For first years, these are going to be opportune times for you to meet with McGeorge attorneys after you finish finals so you can start figuring out your internship plans this coming summer. For upper division students (specifically the graduating class), these are going to be the folks that will care about helping you find work. My thinking has been the wider the net we can cast as a student body the greater your chances are at finding employment when you finish.
Separate from the Board of Alumni, I attend monthly meetings with the Dean and McGeorge faculty to discuss a full range of issues that are impacting our school and its future such as admissions, grading policy, and other issues in the legal field. Often times these discussions start initially at the Faculty-Student Committees where I am responsible for appointing Student Representatives. For example, currently the Grading and Advancement Committee and Curriculum Committees are meeting and the following students have been appointed to serve.
I am looking for additional students to appoint, specifically evening students, so if you are interested and have capacity, please feel free to contact me. Likely as the year progresses, new committees will arise to focus on issues raised by the full Faculty Meeting (it would be fair to say it operates like an assembly and each professor and myself have a vote on matters).
SBA Committees Hard at Work this Fall
The SBA has always been privileged by the hard work of the student volunteers to chair and fill the Committees. To give folks some overview of the work that is ongoing and pending this Fall by the SBA Committees, you can visit here to see their objectives.
A quick summary of their work so far this Fall can be found below:
SBA Diversity Committee has been working with the school to create McGeorge’s first ever Diversity Scholarship with a funding deadline of February 2015 when we hold our annual Diversity Week.
The SBA Career Development Committee co-hosted with the Women’s Caucus, Alternative Dispute Resolution Club, and Career Development Office a Salary Negotiation Panel.
The SBA Elections Committee is conducting the First Year Elections and has worked with Westlaw to bring the elections online so that all students can easily vote regardless of their work life balance situation. More information on how online elections will work will be coming soon.
Sustainability and Garden Committee continues its work in maintaining the McGeorge Community Garden.
Barristers Ball Committee, tasked with organizing one of the largest student run social events (also known as our “law school prom”), is busy planning the event.
The Activities and Sports Committee (see their Facebook group here) is currently organizing a handful of outdoor activities for students on the weekend.
And the SBA Wellness Committee is preparing to help students alleviate some stress during midterms and finals while preparing for next year’s Week of Wellness (see last year’s events here).
Other SBA Activities
1L Midterm Student Panels
Helping connect 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students to the incoming class has been one of my two main goals as SBA President and I have to thank the SBA Board, members of our faculty, and students willing to volunteer their time for any progress on that front. Both during the campaign and early in the Fall semester, upper division students wanted to have a way to meet and share advice with the incoming class before their first midterm.
To do this, the SBA Board coordinated with a handful of our best performing students and McGeorge’s Academic Support faculty to sit down with the 1L class over lunch and dinner to talk. We discussed midterms, outlining, and generally how they prepared to take the first test. While every student is different and everyone learns in a different way, having some opportunities to just ask questions to students who were in their shoes recently hopefully gave them some ideas on how to prepare.
February Bar Takers
Recognizing the specific needs of our December graduating class, Evening Vice President Lexi Howard has coordinated with the school to reach out and assess what our early graduates need in terms of support for the February Bar. If you are a student that is graduating this December, please make it out to the event. The meeting will be in Classroom B at 5:30 (dinner will be provided).
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