Story #10: Michael Lopez
When Michael Lopez first stepped foot on USC’s campus, he was immediately inspired.
“[It] was honestly my dream school. I knew [then] that I wanted to be a lawyer, and was excited to tailor my path here to that.”
USC offering of his current major, “Philosophy, Politics, and Law,” and the unique service opportunities provided by JEP proved that this was the ideal fit for him as a school.
“In high school, I was very involved in service. I was in Boy Scouts since I was eight years old, and I’d rack up other hours by volunteering at a historical museum in San Diego…. When I came to USC, I was really looking to reestablish my roots.”
Lopez got involved in JEP through two of his freshman year classes, one in philosophy and the other in classics. He says volunteering in local schools helped him get to know the community better, teaching a mini-course in classical mythology at Weemes Elementary and working as a TA at John Adams Middle School.
“As someone coming into these schools who isn’t a ‘professional educator,’ I think I got a unique perspective on what the students were capable of, and I got to experiment with teaching methods. When I taught mythological figures, they were all four-syllable words, which was difficult for them to grasp. I realized that if we made phonetic sounds – like the sound of a wave crashing for Poseidon – they could remember them much easier. Watching them make those connections was the coolest thing,” he said.
After these experiences, Lopez moved over to the Pre-Law Project program. He applied for the director position as a sophomore, in Spring 2020. He says he began the job by having “a really honest conversation” with his boss, Emma Rendon, about the role’s responsibilities. They decided to increase the scope of the role to allow Lopez to run the program almost on his own.
“Emma and I have a great relationship where she trusts me, and I’m very grateful that I’ve shown that I can be trusted and that I can have that full flexibility,” Lopez explained.
He says he loves getting to pair his students up with the “perfect match” partner site. From clinics specializing in rent assistance, immigration services, and environmental law to civil rights issues, the Pre-Law Project pairs USC students with an interest in legal careers to organizations that are prepared to help give them real-world experience.
Lopez laments that, with the pandemic, some sites haven’t been able to offer spots to students like they did before.
“We’re operating at about half-capacity,” he said. But even so, he says that some have returned back to working with JEP even after taking a break during the pandemic. One in particular, “Parents, Educators/Teachers & Students in Action (PESA)” has a program called “Teen Court,” where teenagers who have committed low-level offenses are able to seek restorative justice through a mediation process rather than the traditional legal system which can hinder their future career paths. PESA has now re-partnered with JEP, and Lopez is thrilled about it.
“It’s really impactful that that site was able to come back with us, and that we really have a true partnership – we actually have about six students a semester working there.”
Even though he’s on the leadership side of things, the Pre-Law Project experience is still a learning one for Lopez. He says he and his students are consistently engaged in conversation about what their future legal system should look like.
“One question I always ask my students is – ‘what role do [you] want to play in the system?”
A current senior, Lopez plans to take a gap year post-graduation and will hopefully venture into civil rights law in the future.