I have just finished my first semester as a 1L in CSU's JDO program. Until this semester it had been 32 years since I’d been in a classroom. Before this (and during this actually), I have been a business owner, a newspaper reporter, a freelance writer, a novelist, an instructor for a professional licensing program, a non-profit board officer, and involved in my community. It’s fair to say that it has taken me longer than most to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I actually came to the JDO program because I was looking for how to keep my brain busy with some kind of retirement job. I saw a need in my small community and while researching, I happened to come across CSU’s online part-time program.
My experience throughout this has been nothing short of exemplary. I cannot sing the praises of CSU’s faculty, administration, staff, and people enough. I truly believe that they are invested in the success of their students. My undergraduate degree (not CSU) was not like this. Then, the feeling of “send us a check and go away” seemed more of the thing. This is NOT how the CSU experience has been. I truly believe, in my normally cynical heart, that everyone at CSU cares and is invested in the success of the students enrolled in the School of Law.
First, let me speak about my professors because they are the people who as a JDO I have the most contact with.
Professor Whitmer-Rich is a font of knowledge and experience. He has been extremely available and present to his students and provides amazing feedback. He remains positive in his feedback and has paced his style in a way that understands most of his 1L students are dealing with topics and methods of thinking that are new and unfamiliar at times.
Professor Laser is so incredibly intelligent that sometimes I’m in awe. She exhibits excitement about a sometimes extremely dry topic. I learned so much from her and while at first the topic seemed overwhelming, it is a tribute to her that when I decided to relax and trust in her path, that she led me right to the point where I found an understanding and an enlightenment on a topic that I never could have predicted possible for me. Further, she went above and beyond during live classes to structure a learning environment that helped everyone. I am so grateful for her work in making that happen. What an amazing teacher!
Professor Stump is probably one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my life. His teaching style is unique, his expectations are high, and his dedication to his students’ success and their confidence in their potential for that success seems boundless. The best testament to him would be to explain that when he expressed disappointment in class effort at one point, all of us felt like we’d let him down and we felt horrible.
CSU also provides numerous avenues for help in studying, learning, and even mental health for their students. I made the mistake of mentioning test anxiety in a conversation once and the feedback immediately went to methods of alleviating that anxiety. It took me a minute to explain that it was normal test anxiety, they wanted to make sure. The school cares. They want you to exceed. This isn’t just about money to them—or if it is, they’re all doing a hell of a job hiding that.
In addition, the JDO program goes to great lengths to make sure students have a connection. My fellow classmates have, in a short time, become very important to me. We’re all very different, different ages, backgrounds, life experiences, and goals. But right now, we’re all in this together and we encourage each other, have each other’s backs, and communicate—I feel like this communication helps all of us who are married. Our spouses don’t want to hear about law school all the time, and our chat group gives us an outlet to commiserate with people who do want to hear about it.
The JDO program is hard. It’s a lot of work. I was warned by CSU and by lawyer friends. One lawyer friend told me, right before classes started, to say goodbye to my friends and family and tell them I’d see them in 3.5 years; he then laughed maniacally. I thought he was being funny. He wasn’t. It’s a lot of work, more than I expected and I expected a lot. At the beginning of the semester I remember saying to myself “How can this be part time?”. By the end of the semester, I’d found my groove and I had to recognize that some people are far more intense than me. I’m not giving up my life, not staying up to 4 am and then going to a full day of work, not competing with a room full of really smart people (the days when I was the smartest person in the room are gone in law school, everyone else is used to being that person too); instead, I’m being the best I can be while making sure to balance my life—just like CSU told me in the beginning. If only I wasn’t a person who liked to argue, and I had just listened to them.
Anyway, I just wrote this whole thing because I wanted to say thank you to CSU. Thanks for caring. Thanks for taking me by the hand and sometimes dragging me forward. Thanks for making me look forward to semester 2 of being a 1L in your amazing JDO program. It hasn’t always been easy, but then my advanced years have taught me that the things most worth it are never easy. I can’t wait to move forward, pass the bar, and, as a proud alum, sing the praises of how CSU helped me and felt like a partner walking at my side on this journey.
