http://blog.cleoscholars.com/index.cfm?forumid=15 en-US FuseTalk Standard Edition 3.2 Build 80405 Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1094 2009-06-30T13:22:17 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1094#comments 0
Mother of two children, wife, Senator of Illinois and a law student, you may think I am talking about four different individuals, but in fact I am only describing one. Toy, as she introduced herself, was part of our careers in law panel. I have to say that Toy is the ultimate example of "when there is a will there is a way." To be able to juggle four very demanding responsibilities and still be able to persevere is both remarkable and inspiring. For anyone that finds themselves saying the words "I can't" in any sentence think twice about it. Search around your environment and around the world and you will see that there are many examples of individuals who endure and get through the toughest circumstances. The history of humanity is a history of struggle and achievement and because of this fact I see no reason for me or any other person to have a need to put obstacles in our own way by telling ourselves that we "can't" do the things that we want to do.

Posted By: Christopher Perez]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1093 2009-06-30T13:21:04 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1093#comments 0 This morning was pretty normal. We practiced some logic with Professor Anderson, then went over legal writing with Professor Hunter. After lunch though, we had a Torts test on assault and battery, in which we had to apply the rules of each and decide whether each scenario was either assault or battery via multiple choice, and there was one essay question where we had to apply IRAC.

When Ed handed me the test, I felt apprehensive. I wonder if that counts as assault? It was a physical act...

Posted By: Terrel Adams]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1092 2009-06-30T13:14:42 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1092#comments 0
Last Monday of the program and a lot to do by the end of the week: for today I have to write a personal statement of Ms. Hunter's class and prepare for tomorrow's LSAT. Personal statement is one of the most difficult assignments for almost any student or maybe it is just only for me. Thus, I will have to begin writing it very soon since it takes long time even if it is short. I guess the challenge of the personal statement, unlike of any other writing assignment, is that you have to write about yourself: you have to present yourself is such a way that it reveals positive aspects of your personality without sounding cliché or commonplace. Tomorrow we are going to take the LSAT and I hope that I will be more confident or comfortable with the exam, and I think that our last exam for the program will be on Wednesday, for Mr. Jones class. In short, the next several days are going to be challenging and full of work.

Posted By: Timur Navruzov ]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1091 2009-06-30T13:06:33 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1091#comments 0


-------------------------
Victor Alarcon Jr.
Harpur College of Arts and Sciences
Binghamton University

Posted By: Victor Alarcon

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1090 2009-06-30T13:05:09 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1090#comments 0
It was very interesting listening to everybody's story and seeing first hand what diversity is. I learned that although we are all minorities our cultures and backgrounds differ on so many levels. It has been an eye opener to listen to all of my peers compelling stories and if we all do get into law school i know every one of us will be an asset to the legal system. I now understand what people mean when they say that we are the future, we are the difference that we want to see in the world and i believe that now more than ever

Posted By: jackie ulloa

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1089 2009-06-30T13:01:29 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1089#comments 0 Today marked another long hard day of classes. I know that things would be a lot easier if I went to bed earlier, but its just so hard. Every night, I plan to turn in before midnight, but something always comes up and I find myself engaged in some outrageous conversation with the group at an odd hour of the night. Like other people have mentioned before, I am very suprised at the way that our entire group gets along so well. I really didn't expect that we would all have so much in common or that we would be able to spend hours just chatting with one another. Many of us share the same juvenile sense of humor, yet we are still able to motivate each other to get our assignments completed. Even though we've only been here for a little more than one week, I'm already beginning to feel as if I've known these people for years. This program is turning out to be even greater than I'd expected.

Posted By: Stacey Robinson

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1088 2009-06-30T12:58:47 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1088#comments 0
I must admit I am sort of "big city sick" already, but the conversations we have a group usually make up for that feeling about midway through every day.

Today we learned the difference between assault and battery, a difference that is not clear from a plain reading of the words. Professor Brown told us that lawyers are language police, and part of their job is to make sure that language is being used properly. When you think about the importance of communication, you know that anyone who is in a position to regulate such a valuable thing must be of value to society. That is why I want to be a lawyer.


Posted By: Dwayne Wright

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1087 2009-06-30T12:56:19 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1087#comments 0
Posted By: jackie ulloa

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1086 2009-06-30T12:52:25 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1086#comments 0
On that note, today we started on Analytical Reasoning. For some reason, I actually enjoyed the practice, possibly because it seemed very similar to Sudoku, a game I love. Or perhaps I'm just a nerd.

Whatever the case, I look forward to more practice in that area, and the other areas of the LSAT. I'm going to need as much practice as I can get.

Posted by: Terrel Adams]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1085 2009-06-30T12:50:19 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1085#comments 0
The first class of the day was an LSAT Preparation taught by Professor Anderson. The first thing that he did was to give us our LSAT scores. I will not discuss my score in detail on the blog but I can say that it leaves me a lot of room for improvement. I know that with hard work, studying, prep courses, and prayer I will be able to bring the score up. Today Professor Anderson broke down the Analytical Reasoning portion of the LSAT. This was the section of the LSAT that I am least comfortable with. It really helped when he showed us the four basic types of questions and ways to list, map out, and/or draw diagrams to help us answer the questions.

The second class was taught by Professor Brown. It was a continuation of yesterday's torts class. He is still giving us the basics of what torts are and what governs them. It is exciting the way that he gets the class involved by his use of questions.

The third class was not actually a class but a panel that dealt with selecting a law school. The panel was comprised of Dean Morris, Associate Dean Luna, and Professor Brown. They gave a lot of useful information about selecting a law school and things to do, not to due, and what to expect during the process of selecting a law school.

I am not quite done with the cases yet so I am going to get back to work with some of my fellow SSI students

Posted By: Huston Rivera

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1084 2009-06-30T12:45:24 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1084#comments 0 I really enjoyed doing this legal memo. Combining everything I have learned in Prof. Hunter's and pouring it onto this memo has been a confidence builder. I really do not have any doubt that I am capable of being successful as a law student and later as a legal professional. The whole process of interviewing the client, getting all the info, reviewing the cases and building the arguments both for and against our client was a fun experience. I look forward to doing more of these in the future.

Posted by: Christopher Perez]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1083 2009-06-30T12:42:11 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1083#comments 0
Posted By: Huston Rivera

]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1082 2009-06-30T12:29:00 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=1082#comments 0
Posted by: Lisette Doyle
]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=459 2008-08-05T11:56:58 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=459#comments 0
Despite the excitement that I feel from being a member of this amazing group of students, I am very apprehensive. What if I'm not cut out to be a law student or a lawyer. I have such high ambitions and goals but I don't know if I have the talent or the intellect to live up to the standards of success and fulfillment that I have established for myself. I just hope that I can keep my spirits up, work hard, and become a better and more focused student when I come out on the other side. I guess the rest of it will just come to me in time.

Posted by: Kimberly Fisher]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=458 2008-08-05T11:55:48 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=458#comments 0
Today was the first day of classes and I can say that it was a long day. The coordinators warned us that we would be busy and working hard and with the beginning of classes today I can see that I will definitely have to stay on top of things. The morning started out at 7:30am with breakfast and then the first class, Justice, Law and Logic with Prof. Webking. I wasn't sure what to expect from the class but it despite the early hour, Prof. Webking kept the class interesting and motivated by implementing the use of electronic remotes into which students could key in answers to questions. He also has a good sense of humor and I liked the class.

Our next class was on Contract Law with Prof. Smith for whom we had homework to read 50 pages excerpted from a casebook to begin learning about contract law. Surprisingly the casebook readings were not as dry as I expected and I felt that the reading was generally pretty interesting with the example cases that showed the application of certain aspects of case law. I was worried about having to remember all the details and information about the cases and the law especially since meeting Prof. Smith at the Opening Reception gave me the impression that he was going to be a tough instructor with trying to get through all the material. I am sure I will learn alot and I can already see how the 'law' is connected to real life situations especially with contracts/breach of contracts which seem to be a real chunk of suits or cases in court. I am going to do my best to keep up, so far folks have been helpful in answering each others' questions about the readings and I feel that we will help each other out.

The really cool experience I had today was being able to talk with fellow students about some interesting issues. Personally I don't usually have the chance to get to have deep,intellectual discussions with students of color especially African-Americans. I went to public schools that were predominantly white in rich neighborhoods(although I was a magnet student who lived further away) and many classes I took such as AP/IB were mostly filled with white students so that is the 'normal' I know in an educational setting. Today,for probably the first time I got to talk about things such as racism,sexism, and colonial history along with the law that we have learned so for with fellow students of color. These people were smart, articulate, and genuinely nice people. For once I wasn't the sole example of a 'model' black person, here were other people who were like me. Although my identity is different being born overseas in Africa and moving to the US. as an immigrant with my parents when I was young. I kind of always felt isolated or a loner apart from the African-American community, more often relying on my religious identity as a Muslim as a marker of belonging to a group. I found my niche there but when outside of it as I sometimes am during school, I didn't always feel comfortable going to African-American student communities/organizations on campus to meet or talk to people. I found that today and it was re-energizing and reaffirming for me as a person, student, and future lawyer. I hope to have more experiences like that here at CLEO SSI.
-Luba

Post by: Lubabatu Ahmad-Rufai]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=457 2008-08-05T11:49:24 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=457#comments 0
Posted by: Joeanna Dearmon]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=456 2008-08-05T11:48:23 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=456#comments 0
Posted by: Stephen Dimpsey ]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=455 2008-08-05T11:46:28 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=455#comments 0 Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=454 2008-08-05T11:43:52 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=454#comments 0
Posted by: Torren Gatson]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=453 2008-08-05T11:42:34 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=453#comments 0
Today was a long day. It seems the morning class is getting longer and longer as the program goes on. Even though, I like the class it seems very long. I wonder if during law school class students break if a class is a certain number of hours. Anyway, we are learning about conditional arguments, which prove to be slightly difficult. It is very hard to distinguished between which part of the statement is dependent and Independent.

The work we are doing involving Plato's Apology continues to be more help towards the LSAT questions, but also more difficult. The afternoon class is becoming more interesting with every class. We actually debate in that class, not combatively, but we do have discussions that are very exciting.

Posted by: Evelyn Miller]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=452 2008-08-05T11:40:39 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=452#comments 0 Conditional arguments

Among the words I hate,
IF, ONLY, and UNLESS prove to be the worse.
Do not let the simple appearance fool you,
For they can pack a punch that hurts.

Take any of those words I mentioned
And put them in a sentence.
Read carefully now, because you have to choose,
Which phrase is the dependent and independent.

Speaking of antecedent and consequent,
Learning those is also difficult.
If only Dr. Webking could miraculously make us understand,
But sadly no, it is not as easy as you might have thought.

These factors can create a conditional argument.
Deny and affirm a phrase to see if it valid.
But cautioun is a must
Because the argument could result in a bust.

Posted by: Evelyn Miller]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=451 2008-08-05T11:38:32 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=451#comments 0
Another interesting thing that I learned is that in order to have a competitive resume for firm jobs, law school students should participate in at least one of the following: journalism, moot court, trial court. She gave us an overview of each of the different programs and I think the two I am most interested in are moot court and trial court. I also learned that your 2L summer is a very important summer in the sense that this is the time you should be finding a firm job. From what our T.A. was telling us, the law firm job field is very competitive. I will definitely start working to build by contacts and resume ASAP.

Later today I also learned a lot about the impact of our actions today on our careers. In a sense, our law careers start NOW, today! All of our actions are being viewed by the professors, the visiting lawyers, the TA's, the program coordinators, etc. When we apply to law school this network of people will be very influential in letters of recommendation, evaluations and the like. Therefore, the impression that we make on the now ought to be our best. Which means not coming to class late, not carrying on private conversations (even if the teacher is helping another student), not conducting in activities that are unrelated to class during class time, etc. It would seem that these things would be common sense; however, I never really stopped to evaluate how much of an impact my actions today have on my law school career years from now.

Posted by: De'Ericka Aiken]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=450 2008-08-05T11:12:50 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=450#comments 0 The LSAT exam was not as bad as I thought that it would be. The only problem that I have is that I am too slow in figuring out the problems. I had to guess on most of them because of the time restraint, I really need to work on that.

For the most part the logic games have helped me out so much. I feel more confident and do see an improvement, except on the Friday because I was so worried about the exam that I could not really focus. It's like I was afraid all the information would just go away and I would not be able to remember it. I guess that since there has been so much stress over the intensity of the program, IT is INTENSE; I just want to do really well in this program. There are so many people that would give anything to be here and this is one of the only programs that I have ever attended that prepared me for something I really want.

Gina Uresti

Posted by: Georgina Allessandra Uresti Maldonado]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=449 2008-08-05T11:08:15 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=449#comments 0
Posted By: Jamiere Folmar]]> Matthew Niziol http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=448 2008-08-05T11:04:59 -05.00 http://blog.cleoscholars.com/blogpost.cfm?catid=104&threadid=448#comments 0
On a side note, today was a really good day for me in justice, law and logic. However, for some reason, I have been having the biggest problem with getting my head wrapped around dependent and independent clauses. I plan to review this material and try to get a better understanding. We also got back our LSAT scores today. Dr. Webking was very encouraging as he anticipated many of us would be very unhappy with our scores. I have quite a ways to go to attain my ideal score.

With that said, I am going to get ready for bed so that I can be alert tomorrow, and inch toward achieving that better score!

Posted By: Rachel Pullen]]>