NIU first-generation law students get jumpstart on education

DeKALB – Jonathan Guzman, a 36-year-old Chicago police officer entering Northern Illinois University’s College of Law this fall, said he’s feeling more confident after his first class with tools he collected recently through a state program meant to empower pre-law students.

Guzman completed my first class Aug. 22.

“It went well,” he said. “I was able to collaborate and contribute to the class effectively, so definitely my anxiousness has gone away.”

Some of that anxiousness was aided in part after Guzman recently participated in a program organized by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. The program gave 16 first-year, first-generation NIU law students an opportunity to prepare to begin law school. NIU’s students were joined by 75 others from eight Illinois law schools for Jumpstart 2023, a pre-law prep program that serves students from communities that are historically underrepresented in the legal profession, according to the Commission on Professionalism.

Guzman said he didn’t need convincing when offered a spot in the group.

“I obviously jumped at the chance just to get myself started on the right track – meet and network with all of the people that were going to be incoming law students, as well as get some really great perspectives from some of the senior law students, faculty members,” Guzman said. “And then just getting to hear about some of the life experiences from the different types of people that were invited to speak [was a great experience].”

Young Lee, a 53-year-old who is originally from South Korea, was one of the NIU law students who attended Jumpstart. Lee, a resident of DeKalb, said “it was an honor” to be invited to attend the Jumpstart program.

“The information that I got is very useful and helped me understand what it’s like in law school on my first week, or first day,” Lee said.

Federal and Illinois judges, law clerks, Jumpstart alumni and other law school professionals took part in the three-day, partially virtual program.

Students also heard from Illinois First District Appellate Court Justice Rena Van Tine, Chair of the Commission on Professionalism Martin Sinclair, Commission Executive Director Erika Harold and partner at global law firm Jones Day Elsa Andrianifahanana during the program’s in-person reception earlier this month.

“It went well. I was able to collaborate and contribute to the class effectively, so definitely my anxiousness has gone away,” Guzman said.

—  Jonathan Guzman

Julia Roundtree Livingston, diversity equity and inclusion manager with the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism coordinated the event. She said while the program helps prepare students, it also alleviates their anxieties.

“I think it’s very advantageous for them that they get into a room with other people who are at the same point in life that they are,” Livingston said. “They come in with a lot of fears, excitements and anxieties. And sometimes before that moment of Jumpstart they feel like they might be the only ones experiencing those emotions. And the reality is, when they get to step in the room with 90 other law students from across Illinois, the reality is that they share a lot of very similar anxieties and excitements about law school.”

On Aug. 22, the second day of NIU Law’s fall semester, Lee said he was feeling a mix of anxiety and excitement. But he thinks Jumpstart enabled him to start classes with a strong footing.

“Jumpstart was a really great too, and a great help for a person like me,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about law school. I had no idea. I’m a first generation. But Jumpstart, the school, NIU, recommended that I should join the Jumpstart program, so I did. And it definitely gave me the picture of how law school is going to be, and that makes me comfortable.”