I arrived to the University of Washington Bothell with one goal, to obtain a bachelor’s degree that would provide me with a lucrative career. Before I began my first quarter, I internally settled that I would major in Business Administration with a focus in marketing, firmly believing that doing so would be beneficial to me as there is much money to be made in that field.
All of that rapidly changed. In my first quarter, I took a ten credit discovery core class called “Place and Displacement in the Americas”. The class covered the displacement and systems of oppression imposed upon various minorities living within the Americas, from the mass incarceration of blacks in the U.S, to the virulent criminalization of homelessness, to the “illegal” immigration of citizens from Mexico and other Latin countries. I found myself passionately furious every time I was done with class. I could not fathom that such injustices are taking place within the Americas, that the U.S is and was a place of oppressive systems, and that much of the history I was taught in high school was littered with bias. I would come home and spend hours researching outside of the assigned homework they would give us, going into depth on topics glanced over in class. My original goal of merely going to college to make money afterwards began to erode away.
     Our last assignment in the class was to write a research paper about something related to immigration/displacement in America. Being an orthodox Jew and finding passion in writing about things relating to Judaism, I chose to write my paper on how U.S policy towards European Jewish Refugees during World War 2 was tied with anti-Semitism. Initially, I assumed I would not be able to find much, the incident that caused me to choose the topic was a singular event where the U.S turned away a boat of German Jewish refugees. During my research, I soon sadly realized that the U.S, for much of the period, acted with malign indifference and actively thwarted attempts to save the refugees. At one point, I began to write about how U.S failed to destroy concentration camps and gas chambers via airstrikes, despite being fully knowledgeable that these camps existed and despite that they could have easily done so. The problem however, was that since these concentration camps were in Germany itself, I could not bring up the failure to bomb the camps into my essay as the Jews within the camps were technically not defined as refugees, but were simply internally displaced. I spent a long time trying to figure out ways I could bring the failure to bomb camps into my essay, researching for an inordinate amount for a way to define the internally displaced German Jews as refugees. Eventually, looking across documents from the era in desperation, I came across a definition of a refugee that was established by the League of Nations in July 4 1936, that states any “person within Germany… not enjoying the protection of the Government of the Reich” was a refugee. I could now bring the indifference to bombing the camps in my essay, which was a substantial portion.
     When conversing with my friends about the process of finding a way to define internally displaced individuals, they stated that I was ultimately doing what a lawyer does and should consider law as a career choice. Thus, in my next quarter, I took another discovery core class called “Making a Legal Case”. In the class, we briefly went over areas of law, and learned how to act as lawyers in a trial. Our final was to conduct as defense lawyers in a mock trial. We had to draft opening statements, direct examinations, cross examinations, closing statements and learn a long list of potential objections we could utilize in our favor, then employ them all of the aforementioned material in the mock trial on the last day of class. Long story short, I fell in love with it. The assignments given did not feel like homework, and the trial, which we successfully won, was immensely fun. At one point we had to write a closing statement for the case, and I chose to skip hanging out with a friend to write it. I decided that I wanted to become a lawyer, and I would do everything in my power to do so. Additionally in second quarter, since I was passionate about the first quarter discovery core class, I took “American Lives” with Professor Jedd Mur, a class that took the subjects I studied in first quarter to a deeper level by looking at how history and our representations of minority issues are strewn with euro-centrism and biased discourse
     Currently, I am taking “Introduction to Law” and thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. I have switched my intended major from Business Administration to Law, Economics and Public Policy, hoping to grow my interdisciplinary skills before I enter law school in four years. Additionally, I have just obtained an internship at the King County Bar Association as an administrative intern, am working with my Professor Karrin Klotz from “Introduction to Law” to reinvigorate the Pre-Law society we have on campus for next year, and am considering partnering with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and others to fight excessive bail/property forfeiture. In terms of specializing and what specific field of law I am seeking, I am considering pursuing a position where I can fight for people’s rights from a legal platform, directly because of the pervading anger I experienced whilst learning about the suffering of minorities within the U.S. I am also considering pursuing some position in environmental law. After taking "History of Climate Change", I realized that the process of science is very close to a trial and that the ultimate way to help people would be to facilitate the health of the whole planet. Because of a small piece of evidence ( or lots of evidence), a claim is made, then more evidence is combined to substantiate that claim, and the claim is countered by another lawyer. With science, an observation pushes the need to make an explanation for that small observation, the hypothesis is made, then more observations are put together to support said hypothesis, with other scientists clamoring to counter it and prove it wrong. This process was reflected in the development of the theory of glaciation, which I wrote a small paper on: Great Climate Change Debate.

    
In regards to my new found need to greatly increase my interdisciplinary skills to be successful in law school, the classes I am taking are preparing me relatively well. In my interdisciplinary writing (B WRIT 134) class, the process of writing a research paper then subsequently a position paper about the effectiveness of drone strikes in Pakistan has positively developed my persuasive writing in general. When comparing the interdisciplinary writing essay in comparison to the essay I wrote in first quarter, there are clear improvements in the number of substantial sources I use, how those sources are introduced, and how my arguments are structured.
     However, if I were to give one suggestion to faculty organizing the first year program, it would be to endorse the clubs/organizations we have on campus more and facilitate student involvement in said clubs. In the start of the quarter, I joined Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity and will serve as a chancellor for next year. In my second quarter I joined debate society and am now poised to compete in the debate team next year. While classes are important, being in these clubs have noticeably improved my leadership skills, ability to work with a team, and public speaking skills in addition to providing me a wonderful network of close friends I would not have met had I just stuck to classes alone. The same is true for an abundance of my friends who also joined clubs. Many students are told by peers just to focus on schoolwork initially, but I believe this is a mistake. Thus, in addition to sending people emails about clubs later in the year, there should be a short session during their Discovery One Class or orientation letting students know about all the clubs available and their prospective benefit.
All in all, I am thankful for the Discovery Core program for helping me discover my passion, improving my abilities, and helping me work towards not just a potentially lucrative career, but one I care about.