One of my favorite things about my job is mentoring students who hope to become attorneys. In my own college and law school experience, the Lord used people and programs for low-income students to help me get started.
As a pre-law advisor I work with students who overwhelmingly come from backgrounds like mine. To equip and encourage them – lighting the pathway to law school just a little – is a gift. However, this is volunteer work and, on top of my full teaching load, can be overwhelming.
This Felt Odd
Towards the end of a long, exhausting day, a young woman (I will call her Anna) walked into my office with an older woman – and Anna introduced the older woman as her mother. This felt odd and inside I felt a bit critical.
I don’t know that I have ever had a student bring a parent to this kind of advising meeting. I invited them in, and we sat down at my conference table. Anna explained that her family had immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union in 1993.
Concerned about Grades
Suffering intense persecution, and enduring incredible turmoil, her parents had come to build a better life. Anna explained her passion for justice and hope of becoming an attorney.
Anna expressed fear about whether she could handle the work, and she was concerned about her grades. She had been needed at home, to care for her father who is bedridden, and it impacted her studies.
God Had Brought Them
Her mother sat quietly as I talked with Anna about how we could overcome some of the challenges in her law school application. I encouraged her by saying that I was confident there is a way forward to law school for her.
This was a conversation I have had with students often. It didn’t feel particularly unique – but I looked up, and her mother had tears streaming down her face. In broken English she explained that she knew God had brought them to me. They were tears of joy.
A Bit of a Wakeup Call
In that moment I was convicted to stop ‘advising’ and started thinking like a Christian professor. I often ask the Lord to help me have ears to hear and eyes to see those opportunities to share my faith and bless my students.
I felt like He gave me a bit of a wakeup call that day.
Praying and Crying Together
I listened and learned that their faith was a huge part of their journey to the United States. I asked if I could pray with them. We prayed and cried together. They left, and I felt so humbled.
I am waiting to see where Anna starts law school this fall and continue to pray for her family. I’m blessed and humbled that the Lord stationed me at a key juncture in the journey of this immigrant family.
Open my eyes, Lord. Who is next?
Laurie Kubicek
Criminal Justice
California State University, Sacramento