Viridiana Valdez Blog

I Have Overcome
June 17, 2020

As I come closer to the beginning of my third and final year of law school, I cannot help but feel anxious yet excited. I remember when I was barely getting ready to start law school just a couple of years ago and now, I am really close to finishing the race. I am ready to finish strong and reach the end of my academic journey in just one more year.  

My journey through law school has not been an easy one, but I am beyond grateful for those that have made it feel a little less rocky. As I tackled the first year of law school, I felt confident in that I had a group of amazing people cheering me on and that let me know I was not alone. I have been able to experience great opportunities in my first two years of law school such as intern in an immigration law firm in the Denver community during the summer of my 1L year, as well as interning for the Honorable Christine Arguello. My semester at the U.S. District courthouse was such a unique and amazing experience that taught me so much. It is because of my time there and being surrounded by Judge Arguello’s fantastic law clerks that I exponentially improved in my writing enough for my professor to select my semester article for a national writing competition. Although I did not win, I felt accomplished knowing that my writing was deserving of even competing with other great writers from law schools around the country. It is also thanks to my judicial internship that I was able to gain employment at a local Denver law firm as a student legal assistant in which I have the opportunity to work on writing motions based on the research I conduct.  

Overall, my law school experience has been a positive and exciting one that has taught me so much about not just the legal field, but also new perspectives on the world itself. It has completely changed the way I think and the way I react in certain circumstances. Law school is the best decision I could have made, and I am ecstatic for my last year. I am ready to continue learning from such amazing professors and classmates. I am also ready for the challenges I will embark as I prepare for the MPRE I will be taking this fall and the bar exam I will be taking next summer. It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing my academic years are coming to an end, but that only means it’s the beginning to the career I’ve dreamed of for so long. I have overcome the obstacles that were against me to get this far, and I am ready to overcome the ones that I will hit along my way in the future.  

Thank you Law School Yes We Can for helping me get this far and providing me with the correct guidance and support necessary for me to achieve my dreams.   

Maintaining Sane through the Storm
July 2, 2019

As I come close to the end of year 3 at the University of Colorado Boulder it excites me to know I am more than half way done with my undergraduate education. It is even more exciting to know I am one step closer to law school. While looking back on the last few years I came to realize it had been a pretty smooth ride for me, until this spring semester. The last few months I have been juggling so much from an internship with the Boulder Public Defender’s office, to schoolwork, other extracurricular activities and on top of that preparing for the LSAT. 

I am so thankful for Eliseo Puig for keeping me on track with my LSAT preparation. With such a busy semester, I’m sure if it was not for him sending me emails every week I would not have been getting my preparation in. This semester has been my toughest semester ever at the university and it has felt almost as if I was walking through a storm because it has been exhausting to keep up with it. It feels like I have done so much in so little time because time has flown by so quickly. 

Even though at my internship everything is on my own schedule, it still takes up my time. I really enjoy this internship and how I am not just making copies, but rather interviewing witnesses and alleged victims of real cases. That internship has been the best part of my semester because I have learned so much in so little time. I have also received insight on cases that have gone to trial and sat in on one of the trials. I have learned plenty on the justice system and how sometimes defendants are underrepresented in the courts. Everything I have learned this semester I have taken it seriously and applied it to my life. It has helped narrow my career choices and what field I choose to pursue in law. Even though this semester has been a tough and stressful one it has also been my favorite. It has been tough but I have maintained sane and thanks to Law School Yes We Can, I managed to remember to add time in my busy schedule to prepare for my Law School Admission Test. 

“Sí, Se Puede” is a phrase born of farmworkers, who, under the leadership of the UFW, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta, fought valiantly for equal protection under the law. As a result of the efforts of the UFW, “Sí, Se Puede” has become well known as a call that engenders hope and inspiration in those who face similar battles. We thank the UFW, whom we acknowledge to be the sole and exclusive owner of the Trademark SI SE PUEDE, for granting us a limited license to use“Sí, Se Puede” in connection with our efforts to recruit, in Colorado, students of Hispanic or Latino descent for our law school pipeline program. For more information about the programs offered by the UFW, please see UFW’s webpage (www.ufw.org); UFW Foundation’s webpage (www.ufwfoundation.org); and UFWF’s immigration services webpage (www.sisepuede.org)