Student Profile: Q&A with First-Year Student Ryan Schmidt
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Ryan Schmidt
Full Time JD/MA Student
College of Charleston ‘11
Q: What brought you to law school?
A: After I finished high school I joined AmeriCorps. Around 2007, I went to work along the gulf coast, this was after Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and while I was down there I had the chance to work with the Salvation Army and some different long term recovery NGOs. Through this I met a lot of different people that were underrepresented; they didn’t know where to go for different resources. I worked with social workers that were an inspiration for me to keep working with people who are underrepresented and do not know where to turn. I knew that I wanted to use these skills and use this passion that I gained in New Orleans to practice law.
Q: Where were you before law school?
A: AmeriCorps is where my roots are, and after that I went to college; I had a lot of great professors that told me a lot about international work and I got involved with international relations. Peace Corps felt like the next step for me. I applied and I had no idea where I was going to go. They sent me to Ukraine, a place I knew nothing about. I did not speak any Russian or Ukrainian. While I was there, I worked in the Youth Development Sector. I was placed in a very small village of 2,000 people and spent a lot of time working in the gardens, helping to raise chickens, and feeding the cows. Ukraine is in a very transitional stage and you can see a lot of basic human rights violations happening on a daily basis.Unfortunately corruption is an every day thing. In my village we worked with different partners to form leadership and teamwork clubs. We started a model United Nations club. This was something that was new for the people in my area. With my broken Ukrainian skills it was very difficult to explain what model United Nations was, and was a challenge to get going.
My colleagues and I also worked together to form different projects. Ukraine has a higher rate of HIV/AIDS than anywhere in Europe, so we tried to fight the stigma that exists in the country. My colleagues and I put together a camp for children up to 16 years old that were affected by HIV/AIDS. It gave them a place to be themselves and gave them leadership and teamwork skills.
Q: Why AUWCL?
A: I love that AUWCL has such an international focus. AUWCL has a strong reputation and I am from the D.C. area, so it is nice being back here. You cannot beat the location.
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