Siham Kharfan

Some of the best advice that I've gotten is, especially through law school, just because people look like they're handling things well, or they're hitting different milestones than you, that doesn't mean that they might not be struggling with their own journey. I've learned to try not to compare myself too much to other people and what kind of journey they're on, because everybody's path is different, and everybody's gonna end up where they're meant to be in life, in the end. That's some of the best advice that I've gotten from a couple of different people at the law school - to kind of have that perspective, that your journey just looks different than other people's, but that doesn't mean that you're on the wrong path, you're just on your own path.

My biggest piece of advice would be to commit yourself to things that you are very dedicated to. I think that especially since I've started law school, things have just changed so much in the hiring timeline for summer associates, and things are more competitive than ever now for new law students. Try not to get caught up in doing as many things as you possibly can and getting as many bullet points on your resume as you possibly can. I would say invest yourself in the things that are meaningful and that really contribute to your personal, professional, and academic growth, because I think that it's really easy to kind of get spoiled by choice in law school. There are so many things to do - there's clinics, externships, semester in practice opportunities, you can do clubs, you could do moot court law review, you could do other journals, you could do leadership in other ways, you could do things on main campus. It's so easy to get really overwhelmed and feel like you just want to do everything, so I would say be very thoughtful and mindful of what you're contributing your time to, as well as the things that you do outside of law school, like spending time with your friends and calling your family and things like that. Things like that are also important to spend time on.

The biggest challenges I've faced in law school have evolved over time. As a 1L, the biggest challenge was the adjustment into law school - it was such a different environment compared to my undergrad experience and my work experience. It's way more fast-paced than undergrad, and you are kind of forced to adapt to a new way of learning, and that was a really big challenge for me, especially in that fall semester. As a 2L, my biggest challenge felt like balancing time between different obligations and responsibilities, because as a student, you're still attending classes, you still have responsibilities with regards to your grades and your academics, but then you're also pulled into different directions with journals, with organizations. Those kinds of responsibilities, plus classes, plus other obligations like volunteering, it forces you to adapt to a different way of time management than you're used to. I also think that things have changed so much in the hiring timeline for summer associates, and things are more competitive than ever now for new law students.

Some of the biggest values that I have for both my work and my personal life came from my job experience at the University of South Florida and my experiences in law school. One of the biggest values that I have is being somewhere where the culture feels very respectful and where you as an individual are valued. I really felt that at University of South Florida Foundation - I felt very valued by not just my team, but the executive level, the C-suite of Foundation. Despite the fact that I was hired straight out of undergrad and was very new, they all were very enthusiastic about the things that I could bring to the table that were kind of new and different. I felt like my contributions were very celebrated. Jay Stroman, the CEO of USF Foundation, was very vocally appreciative of people as individuals, and that set a really great tone for the culture. My office in donor relations was very good about celebrating each other's wins and making sure that we were all aware of what each other was working on and what we could do to facilitate and support that. At the Bedell firm last summer, despite it being my first summer of legal work, they were very welcoming of me being in the room and facilitating opportunities for me to see firsthand how an attorney talks to a client, how you're putting a presentation for the state attorney's office together, going to those kinds of meetings. I felt very valued there. So culture is definitely one of the biggest values for me. Another one is just being open-minded and being willing to jump in and learn things that you've never done before, and being willing to try things and see what succeeds and see what people are really receptive to. When I was putting together Loyalty Herd, everything was super new to me - it was my first job right out of undergrad, and I had no idea what it even meant to have a consecutive giving program. I started from the ground up, researching other university's consecutive giving programs, reaching out to the people in charge of those and setting up meetings, and having them walk me through the logistical structure of what their programs look like. I even learned to work on graphics and materials myself in Canva. I had a lot of room to try new things and put things together that people hadn't really thought about. For me, those two are the biggest things - keeping an open mind and going somewhere where your ideas and you as an individual are gonna be valued and celebrated.