By Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian & College Archivist
September 2018 marks the South Texas College of Law
Houston’s 95th fall semester. That’s 95 years of excited,
determined, and confused students. Through the years, our student body has gone
from being all part-time students who had full-time jobs and families to mostly
full-time students fresh out of undergrad. The College changed with the
students, albeit probably slower than some students would have liked (we didn’t
start having classes before 2 pm until the 1980s). What has not changed is our
commitment to student success. However, in order to succeed, first you have to
survive.
There have been many books written about how to survive law
school – in fact we always have a display of them up at the beginning of every
fall semester (head to the short reference shelves by the puzzle, on the second
floor. The rest of the year, you can find these in on the 4th floor
of the library in the KF 280s). They are full of helpful tips on studying, how
to maintain school-life balance, and reminders that your family members are
going through this ordeal adventure with you, so please try to not
disappear on them or turn into crazed loons when it’s time for finals (I may be
paraphrasing a bit).
South Texas has always assisted students to survive and
navigate law school. Through the years, there have been countless programs,
activities, and seminars created for the sole purpose of helping students not
only get through law school, but also thrive in the legal profession. Starting
with orientation, students learn to look around at their section mates. Over
the next three years, you will spend more time with your classmates than your
family. The relationships you forge with them will continue long after law
school, into your careers. Find your place, and your study group, within them.
Explore the different student organizations. It’s important
to meet students outside your section and area of interest as well as to mingle
with upperclassman. Student organizations are a great way to network within the
school. Take advantage of all the workshops and seminars that take place within
the school. It’s never too soon to attend events put on by the Career Resource
Center. Attend resume writing workshops, seminars on how to outline, and the
library’s legal research workshop series (which will be starting up again
soon).
Socialize! For the most part your life, from now through the
bar exam, is law school. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little
fun. Those same student orgs that you are investigating are going to have
mixers – go to a few of them (at least one of the orgs should have a Game of
Thrones watching party in 2019 – go to it and try to figure out how you would
defend Cersei from murder). Take in trivia night and go to a Halloween party.
Take the family to see Night Court. Law school is serious business, but you
have to have some down time.
Those are the big things. What about the little things that
will make your law school life a little easier? A few tips from your friendly
law school librarians:
- Set up the wireless on your laptop now.
- Set up printing from your laptop now – it’s
called webprint, and the directions are on the Technology page in STANLEY.
- Do you type your notes on your laptop? Back them up to the cloud! Use Microsoft 365
(available to you free using your @stcl.edu email address), Google Drive,
iCloud, etc. Use whatever service you like best, but do it. Laptops have been
known to crash, die, get stolen, or otherwise stop working.
- Eat healthy and exercise when you can. It’s good
for you.
- SLEEP (at home, not in class. Nor in the Library).
- Ask for help. Don’t be afraid to talk to your
professors and remember you can go to the offices of Student Academic Affairs
and Academic Success at any time.
- Review your notes weekly, don’t just cram at the
end of the semester.
- Go to the Library. Attend our workshops and
events as often as possible (you can always ask for a quick refresher course on
any of our workshop topics).
- When in doubt, ask.
In honor of our 95th anniversary, an exhibit, “Surviving
Law School: 95 Years of 1Ls,” is now on display in the Library lobby. This
exhibit contains materials from the College Archives detailing student events including
photographs, flyers, catalogs, and articles written by students for students
through the years. This exhibit will be up through December 13, 2018.
