Her Story
About Gabrielle
I'm currently in my second year of law school, and I have a bachelor's degree in politics and public service. What really drove me to pursue law was a personal experience with my dad. He had gotten into a very bad motorcycle accident - he went to the store, had a beer, got on his motorcycle, and someone ran a stop sign and hit him. A few months later, he got charged with an OWI and was basically blamed for the accident criminally because he had a very extensive criminal record. I got to go with him through all of the proceedings, and it made me realize something important. I don't like when people think that when someone has a criminal record, that they're not a person anymore, that they are just criminals with that label. I got into the law because I see people as people, even if they do have a criminal background, and I want to be able to provide the right kind of protection that they might need and help reform our justice system, because it definitely needs a lot of change right now. Currently, I serve as a policy fellow for the Ohio Innocence Project, where we look at legislation that's pending in both the Senate and the House, and we oppose or support bills depending on their impact on the innocence process. If it's going to make proving someone's innocent easier, we support that bill, and if it's going to make something more difficult or challenging, we oppose it. For example, I'm supporting abolishing the death penalty because we hold that if someone's innocent and on death row, we can't help exonerate them if they're no longer here anymore.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Gabrielle
01What do you attribute your success to?
The most rewarding part of law school for me has been learning that it's difficult in a different way than I expected. You're not just learning material - you're learning how to study, how to dig into yourself, and discover different study habits. You have to try really hard and work harder than you thought, and then you get to see it pay off in the end. That's been really cool for me - seeing how difficult it is, but also how I'm able to work through it and overcome the challenges that I've been through with law school. I'm also really good at going with the flow. I plan out my week in advance, but if my schedule doesn't work out, I know I'm gonna be able to fit time in a different place, and I know everything's gonna work out how it's supposed to.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
For law students coming to law school, whenever we're going through a recession and the economy is changing, and when we have political leaders that are impacting things in different ways, for some reason law school applications spike. So right now, the legal field is becoming kind of saturated, and it might be a little bit more difficult to find a job coming up.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Seeing people as people is incredibly important to me, even if they have a criminal background. I don't like when people think that when someone has a criminal record, that they're not a person anymore, that they are just criminals with that label. My supervisor, Pierce Reed, at the Ohio Innocence Project has been very influential on me because he really cares about mental health and pays so much attention to the way that we speak to people and about people, even just using certain terms. He makes me think more about how what I'm doing and what I'm saying is impacting people. I've also been focusing more on my health - I've lost 60 pounds since last February and have been training to run a 5K. Paying more attention to my health has become really important to me.
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