Valencia College Stories

金沙注册律师助理毕业生在课堂和法庭上表现出色，成为一名辩护律师 attorney.

一些学生清楚地知道他们的教育可能会把他们带到哪里——他们报名上课 他们立即踏上了追求自己一直梦想的事业的道路 of having. But for students such as Laura Cepero, a Valencia College graduate, the 她的辩护律师之路从来都不是她最初的目标 这是她在她的教育，专业和 personal journey over the last several years. 

塞佩罗在中佛罗里达大学（University of Central Florida）澳门金沙注册了历史学硕士学位 在历史系，花无数的时间处理数据和信息 in digital archives when she realized something was missing from her career. Despite 由于无法确定确切的时刻，她知道丢失的拼图旋转了 围绕在法律体系内工作，塞佩罗一直知道她对工作充满热情 为了正义，不知何故，星星一颗一颗地排列在一条通往她的道路上 position as a defense attorney today. 

利用她从历史和分析背景中澳门金沙注册的技能，塞佩罗的 研究和行动主义的天赋让她加入了国际特赦组织， 一个人权组织，在那里她自愿为废除死刑工作 campaign. While initially motivated by the “Innocence Movement,” a social movement based around exonerating wrongly convicted individuals with efforts to reform the criminal justice system, Cepero said she’s opposed to the death penalty as a form of punishment regardless of a person’s innocence or guilt.

“我知道（死刑）是一个有争议的话题，但即使是在我还是个孩子的时候 wondered ‘what if they didn’t do it?’”, Cepero said. “I never felt right about the government killing people and it was something I was always interested in...so when I finished my master’s degree I got involved in activism.”

在此期间，塞佩罗与囚犯密切合作，与个人交谈 在死囚牢房中审查他们的案件以便更好地了解证据， the trial, and the overall process that led to their incarceration. It was during 这一次，她遇到了理查德·格洛西普，他目前在俄克拉荷马州的死囚牢房服刑 因1997年谋杀巴里·范·特里泽而入狱. 格洛西普的案子不仅引起了塞佩罗的兴趣，也引起了国际社会的关注 due to the unusual circumstances of his conviction with little-to-no-evidence. 

“我开始通过信件和电话与理查德·格洛西普交谈，”塞佩罗回忆说. “He has had an execution date set, delayed, set, delayed...I knew his case in and out, but I was not a lawyer and I couldn’t argue for him. I felt helpless.”

她帮助别人的愿望只会在她身边的人作假时得到进一步的刺激 accused of a crime and caught up in the complicated legal system. Though it was only 在指控被撤销之前，塞佩罗有过短暂的经历 尽管释放了，但这是一段艰难的时期，这促使她再考虑一下 看看法律体系，并努力修复她所看到和观察到的缺陷 endure. 

“我想我可以做得更多，用我的技能来帮助这些人，所以我调查了 他参加了金沙注册学院的律师助理课程，并在晚上上课，同时维持生计 my job,” Cepero said.

尽管她在2015年又回到了金沙注册的教室，但她的意图 of being a lawyer still wasn’t at the front of her mind. Instead, she was simply seeking 这是一个新的教育挑战，让她更多地了解这个领域，提高她的技能 her activism. It wasn’t until the insistence of Valencia professor Carin Gordon did Cepero even consider taking her education one step further and becoming a lawyer.

“当时我正在上戈登教授的法律研究与理论二课，她逼我上的 to do the law school thing,” Cepero recalled. “She came up to me and said, ‘You’re going to law school?,’ to which I replied, ‘No,’ and she just repeated, ‘No, you’re going to law school.’”

由于在律师助理项目上表现出色，她决定在戈登这个目标上碰碰运气 laid before her and started studying for her Law School Admission Test (LSAT). As 一个擅长研究和分析法律背后的思维过程的人， 毫无疑问，塞佩罗在FAMU上夜校期间表现出色 once again working full-time at the Public Defender’s Office throughout the day. Unintimidated 大量的数据、案例研究和行话甚至困扰着最勇敢的人 作为一名年轻的律师，塞佩罗以全班第一名的成绩毕业于FAMU in Fall 2020. 

她在律师资格考试中也取得了很好的成绩，因此被邀请在第五法庭演讲 在她的就职典礼上，这一荣誉只保留给 a recipient of one of the highest bar exam scores. But before she was even sworn in, 她设法在就职典礼前一天让她的第一个客户出院了，谢谢 to her patience, expertise and experience as a paralegal.

“让一个客户获释真的很酷，因为我一直在做法律文员 and writing appeals...and long story short we did something kind of novel,” she said. 

与当时与她合作的律师一起，塞佩罗采用了“新颖”的方法 包括通过上诉程序，努力让一名男子从监狱获释 在他因毒品犯罪被定罪并判处十年徒刑之后. 在立法机关将强制性最低刑期降至三年之后，塞佩罗 提出动议认为她的当事人的判决不成比例且不公平. 虽然这是一种不寻常的做法，但法官同意了他们提出的案件， and Cepero’s client was ultimately released.

“由于整个过程很长，我通常不会见到这些人 不断处理新案子，参与文书工作，但我遇到了 （客户）在接下来的一周亲自拜访，这是一次非常棒的经历。 said. “It’s great to hear you won, that you got them out, but it’s so different to see them in person. I had to hold back the tears because I was so happy for him.”

此后不久，塞佩罗从一名法律助理晋升为助理律师 at the firm she had been working for in Sanford, FL. Today Cepero’s journey comes 又回到了原点，或者这只是她不可思议的教育生涯的下一站 专业之旅——她平衡了法庭和课堂的时间， teaching the next generation of lawyers at FAMU starting this fall.

“I had a different destiny than I originally thought I had,” Cepero said. “If you’re 如果你觉得自己还能做得更多，你就会对自己正在做的事情不满意 with your finances and find your balance, you have to go for it.”