Having had friends in law school, both at Baylor and elsewhere, I can tell you firsthand that law students don’t get much free time. Those few precious unscheduled moments they do capture are then usually given either to a little extra sleep or a little extra work to help them get ahead in school.
With that in mind, it’s all the more impressive to hear that Baylor Student Bar Association members have been giving up their lunchtimes once a week to meet with students from a local elementary school. Teachers at Sul Ross Elementary, located just across I-35 from Baylor, choose students to meet in pairs with the Baylor law students, who serve as unofficial mentors in hopes of providing the elementary students with an extra role model.
“Even though it’s just half an hour a week, it’s time to give them our full-attention,” says Huma Patel, president of Baylor’s Student Bar Association. “They’re so young. They could go any way that they’re led. Many of them don’t get any sort of positive reinforcement. Often, they’re from single-parent families or have parents who just aren’t real involved. We all sit down and have lunch once a day, anyway. So why not do it in a way that gives back to the community?”
Sic ’em, Baylor law students!
