{"id":19137,"date":"2022-12-08T16:29:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T16:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=19137"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:33:35","slug":"on-macexplore-trip-students-get-up-close-look-at-legal-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2022\/12\/on-macexplore-trip-students-get-up-close-look-at-legal-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"On MacExplore trip, students get up-close look at legal careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over fall break, 15 Mac students got a taste of what it would be like to practice law in a MacExplore Law trip organized by Career Exploration. The group observed court proceedings and visited with a variety of specialized attorneys from places like the Volunteer Lawyers Network, Faegre Drinker, and Hennepin County Public Defenders, many of whom were Mac alumni. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love Career Exploration because a lot of the experiences I\u2019ve had at Mac are thanks to them,\u201d said Anna Sene, a junior who is double majoring in political science and classics. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activities such as the MacExplore trips are crucial for students to be able to assess future career options. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese experiences give students an easy way to make connections in potential careers of interest, meet peers who are also interested in those spaces, and hear about different roles within the field, all of which can provide important context for future decision-making.\u201d said Liz Karlen, associate director for career advising.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Gentry, a senior anthropology major, has been working at a private law firm for the past year and echoed the importance of real world experience. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing able to physically be there on-site and interact with the people who are living and breathing this work is a game changer,\u201d she said.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While on the MacExplore trip, Sene was able to interview a volunteer lawyer about their job experiences and create a network of contacts for the future. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know I have people that I can reach out to if I have questions and they can connect me with other people,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Career Exploration staff emphasize to students that career paths almost never go in a straight line.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole process doesn\u2019t end at your first job out of college,\u201d said John Mountain, interim dean of Career Exploration. Rather, most students find their way in the years after college or even graduate school. With events like the MacExplore Law trip, Career Exploration strives to act as a medium through which they can obtain the experience and contacts they need to help them make better career choices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of our work is really just listening to the students, hearing what they\u2019re saying, and then connecting them and giving them exposure to those fields so that they can decide what\u2019s right for them,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over fall break, 15 Mac students got a taste of what it would be like to practice law in a MacExplore Law trip organized by Career Exploration.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":19138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30923,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19137\/revisions\/30923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}