With childhood dreams of becoming a lawyer, Diane now uses that love of law to introduce students to the many opportunities that law school can bring them. Find out why she’s committed to helping students succeed and how some of her students have impacted her career.
Tell us about your role at the law school and the road that led you to SJCL.
I’ve always been interested in law and when I was younger, I wanted to become an attorney, so when I moved to the Central Valley and found out there was a law school in town, I was drawn to it in hopes that one day I might fulfill that dream. Now, I get so much joy in helping others find their way into law school and it’s kind of my passion; to intercept people’s lives earlier than it came for me, and to help them follow their path to law school. I sort of live vicariously through student and alumni achievements because it fulfills a dream and desire I had.
What do you do at the law school now?
I am the Director of Admissions. I reach out to the community and the undergraduate institutions, business sites and try to reach out to people who may not know about SJCL. I also do a tremendous amount of admissions counseling to open the door to students to see access to law school and help them remove barriers. I do a lot of work speaking to pre-law advisors at the different undergraduate institutions, and I try to put SJCL on the map for people to pursue their legal education here. I started in 2006 and I’ve been here for nearly 13 years. I work closely with staff, faculty and alumni to help students find their way into law school.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Admissions is a cycle, so in the fall a typical day is more about outreach and attending graduate school fairs and in the spring a typical day is more about encouraging or counseling people to complete their applications. There’s also a lot of student tours, planning for our law school’s informational events, getting speakers to come out and talk to prospective students and organizing career panels. Sometimes I get to work on projects that involve marketing and new ways of showcasing the school to tell our story, getting quotes and testimonials from our current students to share on our website, going out and doing law firm visits with Alumni Liaison Diane Skouti to see what our graduates are doing to share their stories.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
That initial meeting where I speak to a student for the first time and plant that seed that law school is accessible and seeing their face light up as they think about becoming an attorney and then seeing the many doors that open for them once they graduate. I love being able to see the potential in someone and help them to see it in themselves. I love helping students find mentors, connecting them with our alumni and really positioning and preparing them for a successful law career. The most rewarding part of my job is reaching a student who never even imagined that law school was an option for them and then seeing them walk across that stage on graduation day.
When you’re not helping students start their law careers, what are some of your hobbies?
I enjoy being outdoors and hiking whenever I can. I love to explore nature and am rejuvenated by being in the great outdoors. A day trip hiking to the top of Sentinel Dome in Yosemite is one of my favorite spots.
What is one random fact about you that others may not know?
I love to sail. I grew up in Los Angeles near the ocean in the town of San Pedro. I love the sea. When I’m on vacation you can find me out at sea. More specifically, you can find me on a 36-foot sailboat casting out an anchor off a remote cove on Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands.
Why are you so passionate about helping people achieve their law school goals? What drives you every day?
I like to see a person’s potential and encourage them to get started. To see someone become a great attorney to advocate for justice is what drives me. There are so many opportunities in this field to make a difference in your own life and in the lives of others. You can serve our community tremendously with a Juris Doctor degree, so it drives me to influence a student’s life so they can have that opportunity. You can become a public service attorney, a judge, an immigration attorney, a child advocacy lawyer, there’s such a broad scope of career opportunities.
You also reserve the right to become self-employed. That’s powerful. So it’s really exciting to impact my community in that way and see these students go out and do so many good things with their legal education. Helping them find their passion and seeing them use their knowledge to impact our community is the best feeling. There is nothing higher and stronger or more wholesome and useful.
Is there a student over the years that had a great impact on you?
One student comes to mind that grew up in an underserved community where gangs were very much a part of his life. He didn’t have an older sibling or parent guiding his way into law school. I got to see him go through law school and eventually became a successful attorney. I watched how he used his SJCL connections and networks to thrive. Once he graduated he wanted to open his own practice. It was the support of another SJCL alumni, that graduated 10 years before him and didn’t even know him, who opened the door by giving him an opportunity to launch his own practice in an office space she had available. It’s extraordinary to see that network and support start from the first day of law school and continue all the way into the workforce. I love seeing the culture of civility here that you may not see in the law schools in Los Angeles or the Bay area where there is more anonymity. That collaborative culture is preserved as our graduates all seem to help each other and there’s a very strong camaraderie here.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to attend law school, but isn’t sure where to start?
Give us a call. Set up an appointment. In preparation, develop your reading and writing skills. Get the best undergraduate GPA and LSAT score that you can, find some mentors to guide your way and don’t ever give up. Law school is rigorous and you have to be prepared to work hard. If it’s your passion and it’s the path you want to take, just be determined and persevere until you achieve it. Students and graduates tell me all the time that law school is the most difficult thing they’ve ever done, but they also tell me it’s the most rewarding thing they’ve ever done.
What makes SJCL unique and stand out from other law schools?
The faculty and staff engagement with students is what makes our school stand out. A big part of the culture at SJCL is that we get to know our students on a first name basis and our faculty is very invested in a student’s success. We don’t grade to a curve, we grade to a standard so that all students are able to succeed and we completely believe that a student’s success is a reflection of our success.
Our location also sets us apart because we’re the only accredited law school in a 100-mile radius in any direction, so we don’t have the same saturation in the legal industry as Los Angeles or San Francisco, where there’s half a dozen law schools clustered together in one area. Here, we’re the only game in town, so you have a tremendous amount of opportunity when you’re a student and looking for a clerkship or when you’re a graduate and looking for a job. There’s simply more opportunities here to get into a prominent position quickly without all the competition.
What are some programs or ideals that SJCL implements to help students achieve their goals?
Our professors continue to adapt our courses and engage in institutional reflection through assessing the student learning outcomes of our entire program. Changes in the first year Legal Methods course continues to improve learning tools. They look carefully at our student’s success, doing surveys and reviewing what students want and need to improve our curriculum. I have such high regard for Dean Pearson, Dean Atkinson, Dean Wrest and other faculty and staff members who are really committed to analyzing that and putting plans in place for students to succeed. More than 60% of our incoming 2018 class identified as a first generation college student, which means their parents did not attend college. That’s why it’s so important for us to really understand what we need to do to help our students be successful. Forty four percent also identified as a first generation American as well, so I’m really proud of the diversity we have at SJCL.
SJCL has a very diverse student body. How do you use this diversity to help push students towards success?
With the latest incoming class, the youngest student was 21 and the oldest was 53. It’s interesting to hear when an older student knocks on a professor’s door and says “I can’t believe I’m here with all these younger students who just graduated from college with all these great study habits and I’m nervous about keeping up with them.” Our professor pats them on the back and tells them you are going to be fine. Then an hour or so later, a younger student comes in and says “here I am with all these older students who’ve already owned businesses, written contracts and know what they’re doing. How am I going to succeed?” And the professor pats that student on the back and says it’s going to be fine. It just goes to show you that everyone comes to law school with their own set of insecurities and concerns. The diversity in students makes for a richer experience for all. A student will knock on my door and casually ask about going to law school and it’s amazing to see that student become an attorney. I love watching that progression of being admitted to being enrolled to graduating to becoming an alumni and eventually giving back, whether that’s through donations, mentorship or even teaching classes. Seeing that come full circle is remarkable and it’s exciting to play a role in something bigger than myself that is making such a positive impact on people’s lives.
I just had a student in my office tell me that the best piece of advice she would give to incoming students is to “remove the self-doubt and don’t let it consume you. Believe in yourself and how the faculty and professors have prepared you. Whenever you feel that self-doubt coming on, just push it out of your head because it’s interfering with your ability to focus on the things that matter.” So with regards to our diversity in students, in age, ethnicity and culture, I think it’s important for us to remember that we’re all on this journey together and we’re all here, to help each other achieve our goals and succeed together.
Want to learn more about San Joaquin College of Law, sit in on a class or set up an appointment to discuss your law school future? Contact our Admissions Counselor, Francisco "Javier" Rosas today!