Lizzie was born and raised in New Hampshire, and moved to Utah to study at Brigham Young University where she graduated with a degree in philosophy last April. The diversity in her home state and high school helped inspire her passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which ultimately led her to UCLI. After hearing about the organization in a pre-law class at BYU, Lizzie applied and started her journey as an intern in January 2021 before being promoted to lead intern the next semester. In her time at UCLI since then, she has continued to work as a lead intern and offered mentorship and support to four different groups of interns.
In addition to her work as a leader and mentor Lizzie has been involved in various projects, offering her expertise to promote greater inclusion in the Utah legal field. One of her most memorable (and perhaps the most influential in her being offered the position of lead intern) was her work on the mentorship program manual which can be found on UCLI’s website. Through her experience learning a new form of writing and researching for the manual, Lizzie expressed her appreciation for UCLI and the emphasis placed on learning new skills and taking opportunities to try new things, no matter how uncomfortable they may be at first. Another memorable project took place this summer, where Lizzie was able to assist in writing grant proposals to keep UCLI up and running. Through all her work on different projects in her time with UCLI, Lizzie said the most memorable aspect of them all was the people she worked alongside. She stressed her appreciation for the opportunity to work collaboratively with such a diverse intern population, and seeing people, as well as herself, grow in their skills.
Lizzie’s biggest piece of advice for other pre-law students (although this can also apply to law students and even attorneys) is to network as much as possible. She highly recommends attending any events that UCLI puts on and reaching out to lawyers to learn about their experiences. In her experience, attorneys are very willing to share their stories and offer any resources they may know about which can be extremely helpful.
At the end of this week Lizzie will be moving to New York to work at the boarding school she graduated from. Although she is sad to leave UCLI and “the good fight”, her future is bright. She plans on taking the LSAT and applying to law school this fall. Working with UCLI and getting first hand experience in the Utah legal field has given Lizzie motivation to consider coming back to Utah to practice law in the future. Organizations like Women Lawyers of Utah have also been important examples to Lizzie of what it looks like to fight for inclusion and equity in the legal field. Although her time at UCLI is coming to an end, Lizzie has left a mark on the organization and has been an example of what it means to be truly passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
