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The program in Mexico City, one of eight summer abroad programs run by the University of San Diego (USD) School of Law, actually encouraged the planned start-up of a new student clinic at North Carolina Central, says Hall.
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PAGE 1
The program in Mexico City, one of eight
summer abroad programs run by the Uni-
versity of San Diego (USD) School of Law,
actually encouraged the planned start-up of a
new student clinic at North Carolina Central,
says Hall.
Hall’s classmate is taking time off to go
to USD Law and see how their immigra-
tion clinic is run there, with an eye towards
duplicating the model in North Carolina on
his return. Now that Hall has returned from
his stint in the Mexico program, he plans to
“most definitely” be involved with the new im-
migration clinic when it is up and running.
Hall, who is going into his second year of law
school in the fall, is interested in how govern-
ment policy affects law, and was able to study
that first-hand in Mexico City. As he and other
program participants studied courses on
immigration law and NAFTA, they were living
in a place where those policies and issues
are affecting people’s lives — and they could
discuss the issues both inside and outside
of the classroom. Taught in the context, the
courses “gave me a great introduction to how
the policy works,” says Hall.
In Mexico City, program participants — from
several different law schools, and coun-
tries — were placed with families for the
five weeks they were there. Hall lived with
two other law students with the family of a
Mexican lawyer. Hall studied Spanish in high
school, and bridged any language gap at the
house with the help of the lawyer’s wife, who
spoke English, and his fellow students, who
are both fluent in Spanish. Out and about in
the city, he took a dictionary and a map, and
“was able to communicate very well,” he
says.
Taking summer courses in a foreign country
that is currently affected by those issues
meant that learning “didn’t stop in the class-
room,” says Hall. The lawyer with whom he
stayed had done human rights work with the
Zapatista rebels in southern Mexico, and they
talked about that experience, as well as about
how NAFTA is effecting rural people and
farms in the country. In the program, “you
can take what you learn out on the street
and talk about it” with people in the city, says
Hall.
Courses are tailored to fit each country in the
USD Law study abroad program. While Hall
studied NAFTA in Mexico City, other program
participants were taking courses on Interna-
tional Negotiation, East-West Trade Law, and
Russian law in Moscow, says USD program
coordinator Cindy King.
In Florence, law students can study interna-
tional comparative law in the arts and intel-
lectual property law. In Dublin, the program
focuses on human rights issues, especially
those in the European Union’s legal system.
Some faculty and student alumni of the pro-
gram are quite well-known. Justice Antonin
Scalia taught a course at the USD program
in Dublin in 1998, for example. And one law
student who participated went on to become
the President of Ireland. The USD programs
are also distinguished by their longevity, says
King, with the first program launched in 1973
in Paris.
With such a broad reach and high credentials,
the USD Law study abroad programs may
still find their greatest impact is made on the
individual, local level.
Hall, who is embarking on a second ca-
reer, had a graphic design and sign-making
business before entering law school. He
was inspired to become a lawyer through
the grassroots efforts of his church to help
residents of a neighboring public housing
development who were going to be evicted to
make way for building renovations.
Since the church provided free day care for
the children in the development, as well as
other services, being displaced would have a
great impact on the development’s residents.
“Our church is very community oriented,”
says Hall. Lawyers in the church did pro bono
work with residents dealing with the housing
authority, which inspired Hall. “It motivated
me,” he says, and, seeking an HBCU (Histori-
cally Black College or University), he applied
to North Carolina Central Law. “I want to
make a different kind of difference in people’s
lives.”
Hall hopes to work with a nonprofit group
on civil rights issues in his future legal
career. He sees his experience in Mexico as
forwarding that goal through the connections
between immigration issues and civil rights
work — understanding international issues
and applying them back at home.
Learning About NAF TA In Mexico City: Study Abroad Brings Knowl-edge to Life [by Erica Winter]
After a friend and fellow classmate at North Carolina Central University School of Law returned from a study abroad program in Mexico City and sang its
praises, Dave Hall decided to go.