The Pathway to Law School program had a meeting on Sept. 22 for students that are interested in the field of law.

The meeting was hosted by Rudy Santacruz, who is a counselor and a coordinator for the Pathway to Law School program and discussed the general information about the program.

The Pathway to Law School is intended for underrepresented and first-generation college students and enhances students’ opportunities to learn about the legal field and a career in law.

Santacruz mentioned that some of the benefits students would receive would be individual counseling and mentoring, a membership to Rio Hondo’s own Pre Law Society club and priority admission to participating law schools, which include some big names like the University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount University, University of California Irvine, University of California Davis, University of San Francisco and Santa Clara University.

Students are encouraged to visit site before receiving priority admission, students in the program will receive a fee waiver to those participating law schools and also receive LSAT test prep support, which is an admission test to see where you rank for admissions to law school.

Another thing members will have to do is complete the required courses in programs such as English, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Speech, Math and Psychology while also completing your general education requirements and major requirements. You will also have to obtain 60 transferable units prior to attending the school of their choice, meet with a counselor twice a semester and attend mandatory workshops.

Those required classes in the program go under what Santacruz says are the most important skills in becoming a law attorney which is “logical reasoning, reading comprehension and analytical reasoning.”

In order to be in the program, you must be a currently enrolled at Rio Hondo and must not have earned an associate or bachelor degree.

While the name of the program might make you think that you have to major only in the field of law, Santacruz mentioned that you can declare any major as long you work towards law school requirements. There are family law attorneys that can help someone with the legalities.

Santacruz also invited the people who are interested in the program to a Pre Law Society meeting where they meet every other Wednesday at LRC 128 at 4:30 p.m to get a sense of what students in the program do.

A big supporter of this program is the President of Rio Hondo, Teresa Dreyfuss, who says that “Many of our students can use this opportunity to achieve the American Dream, as they become the first attorneys in their families.”

Rio Hondo is one of the 24 California Community Colleges who was selected to participate in the Pathway to Law School initiative which is sponsored by the Council on Access and Fairness of the State Bar of California.

If you want to learn more about the Pathway to Law School program, you can email [email protected], call at (562) 908-3410 or you can also visit General Counseling at SS160 for more information.