Student Snapshot
Hometown I’ve moved so much that I always just say “America.” Before BC Law Served for 20 years in the US Army; deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan before moving into intelligence and Cyber Command. Law & Life Highlights Vice president, Student Veterans Association and Law Students Association; student organization director, LSA; Real Estate Law Society; student ambassador. Fun Facts Youth basketball coach, Yelp Elite reviewer, and board game conference enthusiast.
I was a week into college when 9/11 happened and there was a huge call to duty for people my age. I joined the Army and started in the military police, which was very much a defensive line. At the time, women weren’t allowed in traditionally offensive roles, so women who wanted to get close to combat joined the military police. As a young soldier, I was constantly surrounded by women who were as combat ready as my male peers, so when the conversation began a decade later about women serving in combat roles it was like, why is this even a question, they’re already doing it. The same thing happened when we repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Things that seemed so controversial in the media just weren’t an issue for soldiers; we just saw policymaking systems match the way we’d been operating. That perspective was formative for me.
I joined as a naïve nineteen-year-old, and I feel conflicted about my service now, especially the detainee operations I participated in with the military police. I decided to change career paths and become a linguist, and since the wars in the Middle East were dying down, there was a renewed focus on China, so I chose to train in Mandarin. Becoming a linguist jumpstarted my education and made me want to be a lifelong learner. I got an associate degree in Chinese, two bachelors, and an MBA while on active duty.
As a linguist and intelligence analyst, I was often giving other people information to make decisions but not making them myself. When I was getting ready to retire, I considered other ways I could help people achieve strategic goals, and law school seemed like a natural fit.
Massachusetts is the ninth state that I’ve lived in, because as a kid we frequently moved for my mom’s job and then I moved a lot in the Army. I applied to law schools nationwide because I don’t really have a hometown, but BC was the only law school where the student community felt very collaborative. I was concerned about losing the community that I’d built in the Army when I retired, and coming here really filled that gap.
“Becoming a linguist jumpstarted my education and made me want to be a lifelong learner. I got an associate degree in Chinese, two bachelors, and an MBA while on active duty.”
