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| Alicia Humphrey Class of 2017 |
The prospect of college presented what was, to me, an opportunity to expand my horizons beyond my small, western Kentucky hometown. After four years of intense dedication to my high school coursework in order to earn a scholarship that would allow me to continue my studies, I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of ten McConnell Scholars which afforded me a full-tuition grant to the University of Louisville. The benefits the program offered —a visit to China for five weeks, the chance to intern in Washington, D.C., major political speakers including several U.S. Senators, and the availability of funding for study abroad programs, just to name a few—made the University of Louisville a clear pathway for me to begin to explore the world around me. Although the transition from my hometown to the largest city in Kentucky was difficult at first, I embraced the countless opportunities afforded by this new stage of my life.
Most exciting to me was that international travel was, for the first time, within my reach. With the help of the McConnell Center, I supplemented my studies of the Spanish language and Latin American history at UofL with trips abroad to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Madrid, Spain, and Oaxaca, Mexico. Once I started traveling, I could not stop. Through the McConnell Center, I continued my study of British literature through a two-week trip to England and Scotland, where I watched a Shakespeare play as a groundling in the Globe Theatre. Perhaps my favorite expedition, however, took place over the summer, when I studied international relations on a five-week tour of China that included climbing the Great Wall with my classmates. Each of these global experiences served to expand my worldview in varying ways, reminding me of what a long way I have already come from being just a girl from a small town in western Kentucky.
When I returned to UofL after my summer abroad and learned that the Moot Court topic of the year would concern the legality of a Japanese noncitizen attending a U.S. college, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to merge my legal studies with my budding international interests. I enthusiastically signed up to battle with my teammates for a spot to compete at the American Moot Court Association National Championship in December. For months, I spent hours a week meticulously poring over Supreme Court cases related to the Equal Protection and Free Exercise Clauses and drafting bullet-proof oral arguments to present before my coaches at practices. I was one of four on the team to earn a spot to compete in Florida last winter, where my partner and I placed in the top sixteen in the region in one of the most unforgettable weekends of my college tenure.
When Moot Court concluded for the year, I sought to extend my experience with noncitizen young people from reading about them in legal cases to actually interacting with them in person. I began spending ten hours a week volunteering at Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM), a non-profit organization serving noncitizens with refugee status in Louisville. Working with the legal team as an intern in the Youth Services Department, I realized that noncitizens’ legal status can present them with countless difficulties most people are never forced to confront—issues that often require the expertise of a lawyer to navigate. For example, during my time at KRM, I helped a client transfer her children to a school offering an ESL program, assisted refugee parents in filling out federal aid forms that would afford them the money to buy their families’ basic necessities, and even translated an application for naturalization for a Spanish-speaking client. Working at KRM allowed me to envision a J.D. degree as a means of employing my own interests, skills, and experiences to make a difference in the everyday lives of noncitizen people. It is for this reason that I want to pursue a J.D. focusing in immigration law, with the hopes of one day returning to work in the legal department of a nonprofit organization such as KRM, specifically serving noncitizen children.
Alicia Humphrey, of Paducah, Ky., is a senior McConnell Scholar studying English, political science, Spanish, Latin America and Latino Studies.