Amanda Milam knew before she enrolled in Lipscomb University’s Institute for Law, Justice & Society that she wanted to get involved in some sort of international advocacy—she just wasn’t sure what kind.
But not long after she took an introductory course at the Institute that featured a unit on human trafficking, Milam not only discovered a social cause that she wanted to embrace but she got a job at an agency where she could put her interest to work.
An aspiring law student, Milam credits the Institute with putting her on the path to a career in a way that might not have happened in a traditional pre-law program. The Institute actually requires students to serve at a social advocacy organization as part of its program.
“If I had just done a normal pre-law program, then my interests would not have been tailored to the point where they are now,” says Milam, 27, who got referred through the director of the Institute to a job as executive systems operator at Free for Life International, a Franklin, Tenn.-based organization that works to end human trafficking.
“I wouldn’t have the focus that I have now,” she says. “So it has tailored my interest to further enhance my vision for my career.”
Through a course called Legal Research and Reasoning, Milam also did the type of work that would have been required to help prepare an appeal for Cyntoia Brown, a Tennessee inmate who, at age 18, was sentenced to life in prison for the robbery and murder of a man who had solicited her for prostitution—a life into which her supporters say she had been forced.
Legal education experts say there is a growing interest in undergraduate pre-law programs such as Lipscomb’s as educators work to better prepare students for the rigors and demands of law school and the legal profession.
