St. Joe’s Pre-Law Program partnered with the Center for Inclusion and Diversity (CID) and hosted Yolanda Ingram, director of Access to Law School Education Programs at Penn Carey Law School, at a Law Exploration Advancing Diversity (LEAD) event March 3 in the CID lounge.

The LEAD program, launched in fall 2019 by the Pre-Law Program and the CID, was created to “specifically combat those shut-out rates and support our students of color who are interested in law from day one on campus.”

Ingram’s talk covered topics from applying to law school, to advice on creating a resume, to what makes a good letter of recommendation. Ingram highlighted all the free resources available on the internet and at St. Joe’s to those preparing for law school.

According to Ingram, talks like these are important because a lot of students are not even aware of the resources available to help them.

“The main reason a lot of people don’t know what the opportunities and options are available is the lack of information,” Ingram said. “So these talks are very important because they try to close that knowledge gap.”

According to a report from the Law School Admissions Council, the incoming law school class of 2022 across the U.S. is more racially and ethnically diverse than previous classes. Using data compiled from all 196 American Bar Association-accredited U.S. law schools, the report found that students of color make up 36.6% of this new class, a 2% increase from the incoming class of 2021.

Joe Gibbs ’25 said he doesn’t know what his plans are post-graduation, so Ingram’s presentation was useful. “I think what was most interesting was how you can be any major and still be associated with pre-law,” Gibbs said.

Benyam Bairou ’25, said he found Ingram’s advice about finding and applying for scholarships especially helpful, and that he is considering law school.

“The most interesting part of this whole talk was getting routed to different scholarships they have to help you get into law school and all the different accommodations that they could make for
you so you can make that dream happen,” Bairou said.

The next St. Joe’s law event will be March 23 and features Tomiko Brown-Nagin discussing activism in the law.