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A blog’s-eye view of the life and times of nine Boston College Law School students is among the newest entries in BC-associated social media.
Officially launched last month, BC Law: Impact [bclawimpact.org] seeks to offer a window into the law school experience, according to the bloggers – the BC Law experience in particular.
“This school is special, and it’s the people who make it that way,” explains second-year student Rob Rossi ’13, a Lexington, Mass., native. “We’re just trying to illustrate what that means. As students, we’re deeply invested in the community, and we want to tell the world why.”
Rossi’s co-contributors include Amelia Wirts and Ronald Makawa, both of whom had past forays into blogging.
“I am excited because this blog is connected with a community of dedicated students,” says Wirts, a first-year student from Medford, Ore., whose previous blog centered on the joint degree in philosophy she is pursuing at BC. “I think the focus of the blog and the dialogue between the bloggers will make this project much more interesting to a broad audience.
“I also hope that it will be a place where BC Law students can discuss the issues that matter to them. Since we are a school that focuses on social justice, I hope some of those issues will center on this calling to be good citizens now as well as good lawyers in the future.”
In addition to maintaining a personal blog “in the early days of the Internet,” Makawa, a third-year student from Gaithersburg, Md., formerly managed the blog of an indie-rock music group from Washington, DC. “Blogging is great because it gives you the opportunity to connect with a very large group of people all over the globe. With BC Law: Impact, I’m looking forward to engaging with a global community of visitors who are interested in BCLS, and working with my fellow bloggers to provide a rich platform for a variety of discussion topics.”
Thus far, BC Law: Impact posts have included Makawa’s account of a regional mock trial competition (the trial concerned a domestic violence case involving a dispute over a velvet painting of Elvis Presley); 3L Lucia Foulkes on BC Law’s first-year spring break service trips; an enthusiastic endorsement of clinical programs by second-year student Elizabeth Blass; and Rossi’s description of a reading assignment about the Salem Witch Trials as part of the American Legal History class taught by Professor Mary Sarah Bilder.
Some of the posts are personal observations on more general topics or issues related to law school: Rossi mused about the role of persistence and motivation, using New England Patriots star Tom Brady an example (he titled his post “How Tom Brady Helped Get Me a Job”); Wirts shared her thoughts on racial justice in the wake of Ferguson and other related incidents; and Old Bridge, NJ, first-year student Zain Ahmad wrote about being an American Muslim at a Jesuit school.
A major reason for the blog, according to Rossi, is to help dispel misconceptions and stereotypes about law school, which he says “has always been viewed as something you have to fight your way through: Books and movies make the classroom experience seem intimidating, to say the least, and the workload and pressure may seem overwhelming.
“People worry about law schools being cutthroat environments. That may be true at some other schools, but here’s it’s different. We definitely work very hard, and we’re challenged in all the right ways, but we also have a lot of fun. It’s a true community, and we think BC Law is a pretty unique place in that way. We help and support each other – we’re all in this together, and that sense of teamwork and shared commitment carries through everything we do.”
Related to that, continues Rossi, is the BC Law: Impact bloggers’ desire to battle similarly negative attitudes about their profession of choice. “Legal education and the profession are taking a lot of criticism in the media. We felt it was important to illustrate all the interesting things that students and lawyers are doing, the impact we’re having on the community, and the different paths people can take.
“The law is about justice, first and foremost, and it’s something that our entire society is built on. Practicing law is an important and very valuable profession to choose, and we want to explore why.”