Who You Know
Weekly Report 10/31/2017 to 11/06/2017
Last week, I consolidated my ideas on which direction I would begin going with my research and upcoming interviews moving forward, so this week, I began cold-calling larger firms and judges, and spoke with my mom, the Executive Director of Frisco Arts about using her as a connection to meet with district attorneys, state representatives, and Mayor Jeff Cheney’s political campaign manager, who could provide me with additional contacts. I have realized that it will be difficult to get in touch with people with big titles and political power as a high school student, so the best way to reach them will be through other contacts. My mother used to always say “it is not what you know, but who you know”, which is proving to be more true than I was expecting this year.
However, I did receive a call back from a judge I had cold-called a couple days ago. Tomorrow I will be meeting with her, and I am quite excited to learn more about what she does as compared to what I have learned about the duties of attorneys through other interviews. A while back, at the Business Symposium, I met with a Federal Homeland Security Assistant Director and a police chief who had both studied political science in hopes that they would later go to law school. However, they fell in love with a different aspect of the law/government before getting there and excelled in those fields instead. In order to avoid going off of the assumption that I want to be a lawyer, I would like to meet with more professionals in these law-related careers, such as the judge who I will be meeting with tomorrow afternoon, state senators and representatives, congressmen, campaign managers, and other relevant professionals.
In addition, I will be continuing to independently research more about the different types of law. So far, I have met with criminal defense attorneys, a civil patent litigator, and an immigration attorney, but I still want to know more about appellate courts and how they work as compared to those at the local level. I have realized my passion for criminal justice and protecting individual liberties, but I would like to learn more about the difference between the court levels now.
This week, I will be focusing on preparing my research speech, a compilation and assessment of all of my independent research and interviews. I will also be working towards developing a plan for my original work. I feel a little bit stuck in a creative rut right now, so I am going to work on letting my brain get out of the box it is in right now to come up with innovative and unique ways to present this speech and draft original work ideas. I would like for these to be insightful and non-traditional in order to make the most of these opportunities; I do not want to repeat other students’ formats but rather expand on my big ideas by turning them into feasible goals.