The incoming 1L class at VLS was treated to a full day
orientation at the Statehouse, complete with speeches and interactive panels
that included VBA members Michael Chernick, Susanne Young and Joe Benning. VBA Executive Director, Teri Corsones gave a
welcoming speech and informed the students about VBA’s special $25 student rate
and all the benefits and events that go with it. During the panel moderated by Chernick and
presented by Rebecca Ramos, Katie McLinn, Alison Clarkson and Joe Benning, questions
from the engaged and bright students ran the gamut from prisons to the opiate
crisis, from favorite classes to diversity and inclusion and from veterans to
mental health and everything in between.
Of the 154 members of the incoming class of JD students, 32%
are students of color and 54% are women. Throughout the day, students were encouraged
to become involved with activities in the state and to consider calling Vermont
home. The attendees also included the incoming students in the Masters of Environmental
Law and Policy and VLS student ambassadors who helped usher the students
through the day (and to lunch locales around Montpelier). VLS President and Dean Tom McHenry and
Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Diversity, Shirley Jefferson, emcee’d
the event, which included an ice cream social with VLS alums. Alumni in
attendance included Ryan Kane, Michael Tarrant, Kyle Landis-Marinello, Hannah
Lane, Daniel Burke, Kristin Campbell, Nick Low, Bill MaGill and Jennifer
Emens-Butler, among others. Teri Corsones treated the students to her famously
large and delicious sheet cake before they headed back to South Royalton on the
bus.
Please enjoy the pictures and all the smiles, below.
