Reflection

Four components of the Capstone Project are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Having my mentor explain the mechanics that go into every case he prepares, forced me to think more critically when trying to process everything he was telling me. I learned how to understand this overall process better and also see the critical thinking that comes along with the job itself. Communication, I was able to communicate with different types of people during my hours, different lawyers and judges whom all had different opinions. My mentor himself emphasized the importance of communication in law, and the sole purpose is to communicate your argument. I was also able to collaborate with different lawyers, as they helped me understand the process better and show me aspects of their job. I was able to also see the collaboration of my mentor and another lawyer whom he was working with on his case. I learned that collaboration does not end with this project, and will always be significant. Finally, creativity. My mentor often asked me questions in what I would do in the given scenario, and how you need to think outside the box for many of these cases. You can never be narrow minded and I learned the importance of creativity in a job that doesn't always show it.

From this Capstone Project, I gained a lot of insight on what it means to have this career. Personally, I learned it is a lot of stress and work that you have to put on yourself. It's not exactly a forgiving job, and it's a lot of pressure to have. Through that, I gained a deeper understanding on what it means to make this commitment. I was able to learn how to manage my time more, as it was difficult at times for my mentor and I to meet up because it revolved around his schedule. Socially, I learned how to communicate better with other people and to not be so shy all the time. I met a lot of interesting people during my hours, all inspiring in their own ways and it was an honor to be able to listen to their advice. I learned the importance of communication and how taking on this job, you need to be able to really speak up in order to voice your opinion. Being soft spoken, I had to break out of this shell in order to communicate with these new people, all while learning the importance of communication as a whole. Intellectually, I was able to learn the process of law better and have a greater understanding of it. I was able to understand what this job really meant, what it was like, and what it took to have it in the first place. 

Some of the challenges I faced during this project, was understanding the complexities that go into law. During my first couple visits, it was difficult to really grasp what my mentor was talking about while he was explaining his case. Often times I'd just nod my head as he spoke, but after a few more visits, I found myself understanding everything clearer. I learned to ask questions, and get clarification on the parts I didn't quite understand. Other challenges I faced were time. More often than not, the times he were available, I wasn't, and vice versa. However we were able to overcome this by looking through each others schedule and finding the right times.