As the first week of the spring semester drew to a close, students were invited to take a day to reflect on their career aspirations, meet potential mentors, and explore job opportunities at the 2024 Campus to Career Experience.
A signature event at Stetson Law, Campus to Career aims to help students make concrete connections between the passion that brought them to law school and the fulfilling careers they seek.
More than a dozen presentations, workshops, and keynote addresses were led by nationally known speakers, practicing legal professionals, faculty, and staff members on everything from overcoming imposter syndrome to how to succeed as a summer associate.
An invitation to reflect
After mingling over coffee and breakfast, attendees settled into the Great Hall for opening remarks from Stetson Law Dean Benjamin Barros. While the point of law school is primarily to pass the bar and get a job, Barros said, it is important for students to take a moment to determine what excites them the most, and how to incorporate that into their professional goals via events like Campus to Career.
Stetson Law Dean Benjamin Barros addresses a Campus to Career audience in the Great Hall.
“You need to make the space to kind of step back and think about the bigger picture. And today gives you a great opportunity to do that,” he said. “You’re investing your career and your future in a really important way…I love my job and I feel lucky to go to work every day. My wish for all of you is that you find that path that you will be really happy with.”
Telling your story
The first keynote of the day came from St. Petersburg-based actor, writer, and speaker Patrick Arthur Jackson, who led an interactive session on the importance of defining oneself through personal narrative, and letting that narrative evolve over time.
“Life is a series of stories, and each of us in this room, each of is in this state, this nation, and world, is the author of our own narrative,” Jackson told the audience. “Our stories aren’t just tales of trials and tribulations. They are testaments to the extraordinary gift of transformation that resides in each of us.”
Actor and writer Patrick Arthur Jackson speaks at Campus to Career 2024.
Through anecdotes from his own life, Jackson demonstrated how one’s story of themself can help them cultivate the confidence they need to succeed in their lives and careers.
“This is a reminder of your existence that provides full permission to live your life authentically, unapologetically, and fully,” he said.
On perfectionism & imposter syndrome
Speaking frankly on some of the attributes that can lead many law students to overwork themselves to the detriment of their physical and mental health, professor and professional coach Jordana Confino shared insights on overcoming imposter syndrome and the perfectionism it manifests.
In environments like law school, where expectations are high, perfectionism is often perceived as a positive attribute – but Confino urged the audience to see it for what it is masking: a profound underlying fear of not measuring up.
Speaker and Law Professor Jordana Confino speaks at Campus to Career 2024.
“One of the reasons it’s so hard to reign in our perfectionism is that we don’t actually want to, because we think it’s helping us,” she said.
Confino countered that perfectionism leads to setting nearly impossible goals, then setting more impossible goals once the initial goals are achieved, so a perfectionist is in a chronic state of struggle. The constant stress can affect sleep, personal relationships, and other aspects of physical and mental health.
As an alternative to perfectionism, Confino suggests becoming a “big picture perfection-seeker” who adopts a holistic view of success, responds to setbacks with self-compassion, and practices self-care techniques.
“On the other hand, the big-picture perfection seeker expects for there to be obstacles and detours and inevitable tradeoffs that they have to make as they pursue their goals, which means they can plan for them, they can navigate those tradeoffs intentionally,” Confino said. “And they can actually enjoy the process.”
From law to comedy
Closing out the Campus to Career programming was a keynote from lawyer-turned-comedian Liz Glazer, who joked that she is living proof that one can do anything with a law degree.
“I wasn’t always a comedian. I used to be a law professor. And that’s generally how people get started in comedy,” Glazer said.
Lawyer-turned-comedian Liz Glazer spoke at Campus to Career 2024.
She said going to law school seemed like an inevitability, even though she often didn’t love the experience as much as her classmates seemed to.
“I grew up with immigrant parents and they were like, nobody can take your education away from you,” Glazer said. “I went to law school because it made sense for me to go to law school.”
Yet she grew to appreciate it, then went on to work for a firm before being recruited to teach law. Glazer was well into her career as a law professor when she experienced the thrill of stand-up comedy. Though it took some time for her to pursue it as a career and retire from the legal profession, Glazer has since performed sold-out shows at New York Comedy Festival, appeared on network television, and won first place at the Boston Comedy Festival and Ladies of Laughter Competition.
She joked that she was invited to speak at Campus to Career as a cautionary tale.
“In all seriousness, I think that I am living proof that with a law degree, you can do absolutely everything,” Glazer said. “Literally.”
Original source can be found here.