 |
WWW.MARQUETTE.EDU CAMPUS CONTACTS SITE INDEX 
|
       |
|
Marquette’s advantage:
“I liked smaller schools, and I wanted to be in urban area. It helps that Marquette is the only law school in the city. I think that law school would be very different in a city like Chicago, where there are six or seven law schools. Here in Milwaukee, there’s direct access to the agencies because we’re the only law school.”
Extracurricular:
She’s active in Marquette’s Public Interest Law Society, the National Lawyers Guild and the Street Law Program. She also interned at the Cabrini Green Legal Clinic in Chicago, the Catholic Charities’ immigration clinic in Milwaukee and Disability Rights Wisconsin. “The only restraint is my time. If I had 10 extra hours a day, I’d do much more.”
She and 18 law school classmates went to New Orleans to volunteer at the Common Ground Legal Collective in the upper 9th Ward, where they helped educate New Orleans residents on everything from prisoner rights to fair rental practices. “It was really overwhelming for all of us to see the physical devastation and to hear the stories of people there, but it was also a powerful experience. It planted a lot of seeds in each of us," she says. The legal collective was grateful for the extra hands. “Much of the work that we did over the week involved community outreach, education and organizing. It was a great opportunity for us to practice our legal research and writing skills," she says.
Not just a student:
Anne’s seen the other side of the classroom through the Street Law Program. She and her classmates teach criminal, property and family law to local high schoolers, and then they help run a mock trail. “When I look back at the law schools I was looking at, none of them had this program,” she says. “It was a great way to connect with people in Milwaukee. It’s really, really easy to just stay in the Law School all the time, but that would really go against my goal of being able to take advantage of all the city has to offer and serving the people who live here.”
Anne Jaspers
Anne saw her share of social workers growing up because her parents opened their home to foster children and then adopted Anne’s younger brother.
“From being able to work so closely with the social workers, I knew that was what I wanted to do,” she says. “I honestly never thought I’d go to law school.”
Yet that same interest led her to Marquette University Law School. After graduating with social work and Spanish degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she worked for Dane County’s Department of Human Services and then for a homeless shelter in Cincinnati. There she worked alongside attorneys and started envisioning herself in their role. It wasn’t that she didn’t love social work; she just wanted to take it further.
“I wanted to be able to join the work that they were doing, to combine social work and the law,” she says. “Lawyers have a lot more power.”
She planned to specialize in child law and perhaps be a guardian ad litem or prosecute child abuse cases. But law school has opened her eyes to other public service possibilities, such as employment or immigration law. There are so many causes she’d like to take on.
“I’m dismayed by the injustice that exists in our world. But I read many, many cases for classes and for work, and I'm inspired by the attorneys who take on difficult arguments and work hard to advocate for their clients," she says. "I truly connect with the principle that each person should have the opportunity to be heard in a meaningful way. I want to be a strong advocate for others."
Quick Facts About Marquette
| Identity: | Catholic, Jesuit, private |
| Established: | 1881 |
| Location: | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Undergraduate: | 8,048 |
| Postgraduate: | 3,500 |
| Campus: | Urban, 90 acres |
| Athletics: | 11 NCAA Division I teams (Big East) |
| Colors: | Blue and Gold |
