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“I intend to become an individual with the power to initiate change,” wrote Leslie Saint ’04 in the winter 2005 issue of Aristeia.
These days, as she finishes her final year of Cornell Law School, Saint is well on her way to doing just as she intended. Recently she accepted a job as a labor and employment lawyer with the firm Schenck, Price, Smith and King, LLP, in Morristown, N.J., where she’ll begin working after graduation. She hopes to become a leader in her field. Before even embarking on a professional career, she has already flourished in leadership roles.
During 2005-06 she served as vice president of Cornell’s Black Law Student Association, working to develop a mentoring program for first-year students. It was a position she loved because it allowed her to use her own experiences to help others. That is also what she most enjoys about her newest challenge: serving as editor-in-chief of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.
The journal is well-respected as source for attorneys and others interested in public policy. As editor-in-chief, Saint negotiates for submissions with authors from across the nation, most of whom are law school professors. She also manages her staff of fellow law students and encourages them to excel in whatever they do.
“What really interests me is not just the end-product, but everything that goes into making the product,” Saint says. “I can see how my work influences the entire publication, and how rewarding the whole process is, not only for myself, but for the entire staff.”
Editing a professional journal is a time consuming task. Balancing that against the rigorous academic demands of law school takes dedication, drive, and discipline. Saint lacks none of those traits.
Ultimately, her goal is “to become a leader in whatever organization I’m part of. I feel good at the end of the day when I know that I’m making an impact on someone else and trying to help them see something in themselves that they didn’t see before,” she explains.
That zeal for helping others has led her to pursue an array of community service activities. While an undergraduate at Lafayette, double majoring in Africana studies and psychology, she participated in a community outreach program that looked at the impact of mentoring and extracurricular activities on high-risk behaviors. She also participated in a tutoring program and sat on the Northampton County Communities that Care Prevention Board.
But it was her experience during a weeklong externship at a drug rehabilitation center that encouraged her to seek out a law degree that she hopes will grant her the “institutional power to effectively advocate for changes in communities.”
While an extern, she saw that case managers often lacked confidence in their clients’ ability to succeed. She realized that a community can either support or undermine an individual, and she vowed to work to “empower those with whom I interact.”
To date, she has stayed true to that vow. As vice president of the Black Law Student Association, she helped develop a mentoring program that allows first-year law students, who are often overwhelmed by the workload, to be counseled by their more experienced peers. She later helped expand the program to include undergraduate students considering pursuing a law degree. Those students are provided with first-hand information about law school, and are even invited to sit in on classes. Saint feels it is particularly helpful to minorities, who would not otherwise have been given such opportunities.
“We try to give as much information as we can to those students who are interested in going through the process that we are going through,” Saint said.
Saint credits Lafayette for enabling her to develop strong leadership skills that encompassed not only her academic talents, but the greater community, as well. As a junior and senior, she took on the role of resident advisor coordinator.
“That was a leadership role that allowed me to see myself grow, and to watch others grow, as well,” Saint says. “It’s very motivating to have peers looking up to you as a leader.”
While at Lafayette, Saint was a finalist for the Pepper Prize and received the Leroy D. Nunery Award for Intellectual Citizenship and Aaron O. Hoff Service Above Self Award.
Now, she’s looking forward to beginning her law career at Schenck, Price, Smith and King, where she’ll work under Lafayette and Cornell Law School alumni. She is pleased to know that it’s a firm that encourages community service.
Eventually, she hopes to work for a government agency on issues of labor and employment.
“I hope that wherever I am I can pursue my passion for both law and helping others,” Saint says.