The “Anti-Social” Life: Advising Your Peers at UVA School of Law
August 2nd, 2012
Let’s face it: law school students have a reputation for burying their heads in their books. So we offer this weekly series, “The ‘Anti-Social’ Life,” to illustrate that law school students can enjoy a life of leisure as well.
At the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law, every first-year (1L), transfer and LLM student is assigned a Peer Advisor (PA) through the school’s Peer Advisor Program. PAs are hand selected each year to help guide and support these students through their first year of the law school experience. For the 2011-2012 academic year, 84 PAs were chosen from 154 total applicants to help introduce 1L, transfer and LLM students to UVA Law and the community. In a letter to members of the incoming Class of 2014, Peer Advisor Program co-directors Michelle Anderson and Leanne Marek wrote, “When you arrive in August, you will hear about all of your classmates’ accomplishments in their lives before law school. Whatever you have accomplished so far, however, you have never written a Legal Research and Writing memo, taken a law school exam, attended a Feb Club party, or played softball on Copeley Field.” Six PAs comprising both 2L and 3L students are assigned to each “section” of approximately 30 1Ls to help the students adjust to these aspects of law school life and more. PAs are also available over the summer to answer any questions students might have before they even arrive.
