Check out this story about PPPA Student, Takele Gobena, featured on the UW Tacoma News & Information Page!
Category Archives: Student Spotlight
The UW Tacoma Pre-law Society – revving up for a new year
The UW Tacoma Pre-Law Society is starting up again this fall! With new president, Marae Slyter, they are looking forward to a great new year, full of activities and speakers meant to ready Law & Policy majors (and other interested students) to apply to and attend Law School.
Slyter, a double major in Law & Policy and EGL—and a minor in Human Rights—is also President of the Student Theater Acting Guild. “I’ll be really busy this year,” she said. “I’m also interning (since March) for Jeffrey Kradel, a criminal defense attorney in Seattle. I’m a volunteer, but it’s good experience.”
In spite of her busy schedule, Slyter is anxious to see the club draw in more students. Her goal for this year is to offer interested students a greater perspective on the law school experience, particularly those who are would-be lawyers. She’d like to help them to navigate the application process—but mostly wants to make them aware of the resources here at UW Tacoma for pre-law students.
“I had so much support from last year’s Pre-Law Society president,” she said, recalling all she learned about the application process—things that she might have never figured out without help. “I want to help and motivate students through all those little things. There are a lot of factors to take into consideration.”
Slyter went on to say that “our club will give that help to students—helping them make up their minds about becoming a lawyer. To ask themselves, ‘is this for me?’”
And they’ll offer that help within a community of students who hold a common goal of studying the law.
Upcoming events for the Pre-Law Society include a booth at the Student Involvement Fair on September 30th during the noon hour. Slyter hopes anyone interested in Law will stop by to learn more about the club and sign up to receive more information about our activities.
This year, the club is also looking to engage in a number of activities, including:
- A field trip to a local law school
- Bringing in outside speakers, including law students, internship coordinators and more!
- Providing a law school application workshop
- Providing LSAT prep, test-taking and other support
- And much more
Faculty Adviser for the Pre-Law Society is Sarah Hampson. Contact her, or Marae Slyter for more information.
Interested in applying to law school?
Come find out all about the application process! On Friday, May 22nd, 12:30-2 pm in SNO 153, the UWT Pre-Law Society is hosting an important information session about law school applications. Pre-Law Society president Tia Squires will discuss her recent experiences with applying to law schools, and lead a discussion about how to navigate the application process, how to study for LSATs, the costs involved in applying, how to get letters of recommendation, and much more! The Society will also be organizing an LSAT summer study group, so come and get in on the action! Free snacks will also be provided.
PPPA Paper Prize presentation
Please join us Wednesday, May 13th at 12:30 pm in the Lucien Room (GWP 320) as Svetlana Slobodchikova presents her PPPA prize-winning paper “Economic Convergence and Income Inequality: Cases of Argentina, Brazil, and China, ” written for Prof. Michael Forman’s PP&E capstone class.
We will also be recognizing the rest of the nominees for this annual PPPA honor, including:
Brianna Trafton, “ Breaking the Silence of Atrocity: Navigating the Liminal Space in post-Apartheid Society” (Prof. Rob Crawford)
Kyle Palmer, “The Secular State Contradiction: How Secular States Fostered Religious Parties” (Prof. Turan Kayaoglu)
Samuel Ranslem, “Domestic Drones: The Politics of Privacy” (Prof. Ann Frost)
Eric Williams, “A Tale of Two Schools” (Prof. Ann Frost)
UW Tacoma student and alumni accomplishments
2015 Rangel Scholar – A UW Tacoma first
Huge congratulations to UW Tacoma student Omer Adam–one of fifteen Rangel Scholars nation-wide. He will be spending his summer in Washington D.C. participating in the Rangel International Affairs Summer Program. There, he will learn about current issues in international affairs and acquire valuable skills to prepare him for a career in the field.Omer is most interested in how religion shapes foreign policy and hopes to improve relationships between the US and Muslim countries. Continue reading
‘2015 UW Tacoma Innovate Law Challenge’
In January, Professor Sarah Hampson’s TPOLS 150 Introduction to the American Legal System was pleased to invite Mr. Sands McKinley, a local lawyer and entrepreneur, and founder of the local law firm McKinley Irvin, to speak with her class about the future of law school and the legal profession. As a special challenge for Professor Hampson’s students, McKinley created the 2015 UWT Innovate Law Challenge. This project asked Professor Hampson’s students to answer the question: “How Can the Legal Industry Improve the Delivery of Legal Services in the US?” with proposals that showed an entrepreneurial or innovative approach to the law. Continue reading
UW Law/Law societies and justice Rome program
Study comparative law and politics in Rome – with the UW Law/Law Societies and Justice Rome Program during the early fall start. The Law/LSJ Rome Program is now in its 11th year.
Ever wonder why Silvio Berlusconi remained in office after being convicted of crimes?
- Why Italians are against the death penalty?
- Whether Europeans have more privacy rights than Americans?
When: August 20 through September 18 – you can extern or work before studying abroad. Continue reading
Alumni feature- Colin McCann
Colin McCann came to UW Tacoma in the fall of 2011 as a transfer student from TCC. After taking advantage of the Running Start program in his high school, he was only 19 when he first arrived on campus. A self-professed “political junkie,” McCann chose to major in PPE (Law & Policy track), with a Human Rights minor. He was also a member of the Global Honors Program.
McCann attributes a great deal of his intellectual, personal, and academic growth to his experiences at UWT, noting that nearly everyone he encountered—from professors to fellow students—challenged him “intellectually, and encouraged me to broaden my perspectives.” He claims that he can’t speak highly enough of UWT’s culture of learning and encouragement of academic discourse. “It helped me develop into the person I am today.” Continue reading
China study abroad- summer 2014
Beef noodles, Buddhist temples, busy streets, and boats on the Yellow River. Sixteen students experienced all of these things on the UWT summer study abroad in China last summer, led by UWT’s Dr. Mary Hanneman and Tacoma Community College’s Dr. Yi Li. For the past eight years, UWT students have had the opportunity to gain (or hone) Mandarin skills while studying Chinese history and culture in China. The 2014 program took students to the city of Lanzhou, in China’s northwestern region, for three weeks of language study at Lanzhou University and one week of travel to Dunhuang, a site on the ancient Silk Road, finishing up with three days in China’s vibrant capital of Beijing. Continue reading
2013 Alumna – A Husky once again
Tacoma native Dee Sonntag, a former PPPA student and UW Tacoma alumni (winter, 2013) is about to begin her last year at the University of Washington School of Law.
But that’s not where she started her legal education. She spent the 2013-14 academic year at the University of Idaho College of Law. “I traveled to Moscow, Idaho by myself, while my husband, Joey, and daughter, Jade (8) remained in Tacoma.” Although it wasn’t easy to be separated from her family, Sonntag noted, “I really enjoyed my studies at the COL. My professors and friends made the time away meaningful and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. As the regional mediation champion, I got to travel to Miami to complete in the ABA National Mediation Competition. I was also the Student Bar Association Representative for my section.” Continue reading