Before starting their academic year, UW Law School’s Class of 2020 spent an afternoon volunteering at five area nonprofits.
Each fall, UW Law devotes a day of its new student orientation to community outreach, to remind incoming students that law is a service profession. Volunteering also gives students the chance to learn about their community and the work of a local organization, as well as getting to know their new classmates.
This year, law students painted, prepared food, cleared weeds and performed other chores for the following organizations:
- The Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability had students weeding and clearing paths on the grounds of its cemetery.
- Students who volunteered at Hope and a Future, a 4-bed assisted living facility, either helped with grant research or worked in the vegetable garden.
- Students painted benches and cleared pathways to prepare the outdoor classroom at Lake View Elementary School for the first day of school.
- At MTILP, an agency serving adults with disabilities, law students assisted clients on their tour of the Madison Mallards baseball stadium.
- Porchlight, which provides emergency shelter and affordable housing in Madison, had students work on landscaping and yard clean-up at one of its facilities.
Law students began their day of outreach hearing from two UW Law alumni. Laura Smythe ’97, director of the Law School’s Pro Bono Program, spoke of a lawyer’s lifelong call to community service. James Peterson ’98, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, welcomed students to the profession.
“Think of yourselves as members of the legal profession from this day forward,” he told students. “It starts now.”
Submitted by Law School News on September 12, 2017
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