During my first semester in the paralegal program I began using Rosetta Stone to improve my Spanish skills. I didn’t have any room in my class schedule to take in-school or even online Spanish, so I invested in the program.
Rosetta Stone uses something called Dynamic Immersion® which is really no more than putting you in an environment that speaks only the language you want to learn. I need to learn Spanish, and so each lesson is taught 100% in Spanish. There isn’t a single English word in the program; and it works.
I began thinking about how the theory of immersion could be applied to my education. If immersion was successful at teaching me a new language, then it should help me become more successful at school. I decided to put the theory to work by totally immersing myself in legal studies. There was a huge commitment involved in doing this. My personal life suffered including television addictions (Real Housewives, Glee, 30 Rock, Community and The Office), socializing and sleeping. I told my husband I would see him when I graduated. Not really. But you get the picture.
Here’s the breakdown on my immersion experiment:
- I carried 19 credit hours and received straight A’s. Only stellar grades will get me a job when I graduate. Employers will request to see my transcripts so when I say stellar, I mean A’s and B’s, with emphasis on the A’s. B/C students are not going to get jobs as paralegals. If you don’t believe me, ask any attorney.
- I read everything I can that applies to the law, especially the areas I’m interested in. I read blogs, Twitter feeds, magazine and newspapers and look at relevant websites. I don’t skip over stuff in my textbooks either. I keep up on the trends and follow the courts.
- I don’t miss assignments and I have to be throwing up or stricken with violent diarrhea and fever to miss a class. Period.
- I know the names of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices.
- I read the U.S. Constitution. It’s a short document. Every American should read it, paralegal program or not! I am ashamed that I did not know that document well. I do now.
- I join organizations! There should be chapters of paralegal organizations near you and most offer student memberships that are cheap. Try to attend the meetings if your class schedule permits, but if you can’t, you can volunteer to do something for them from home. Networking is really really important. I’m not waiting until I graduate to start building my network.
- I volunteer. I accept that I am going to have to give it away for free. If you think that at the end of your two year or four year degree program you are going to walk into a paralegal job without experience you’re wrong. The only way to get experience is to work for free. You can volunteer at a law office or a non-profit legal service; it really doesn’t matter as long as you can put on a resume that you have paralegal experience. In this economy, and in the current job market, experienced paralegals are not finding jobs. How am I going to get a job if they can’t? Check the online job boards like Monster.com for a reality check on jobs.
- I hope this doesn’t offend, but work on your spoken language skills. I think college professors have to be careful about what they say to people so they don’t get into trouble and therefore rarely correct a student’s speech. I’m just a student so I have nothing to lose by telling everyone that if you are still speaking in slang or have a strong accent (I live in the South) that makes it difficult for people to understand you then changes have to be made. When you’re watching the news does anyone speak like they’re from the
That’s it for now. I’ll go into more details about each of these areas of immersion and share whatever information I have. I have 21 credit hours so I am literally immersed but I plan to post at least weekly this semester.
Thanks for reading.
Lynne Koenigsknecht
The Paralegal Student
No comments:
Post a Comment