Content area
Full Text
If my Tia sees me tagged in anything important on Facebook, she shares it in the 43-membered Donoso Family WhatsApp group chat. And that is exactly what happened when Florida State University College of Law posted about me being the only law student invited to join the ABA Criminal Justice Section Women in Criminal Justice Task Force. Immediately I got a call from my mom, "Y de que se trate esto?" "What is this all about?" she asks.
I explained that women are leaving the criminal justice field, and I am helping to find out why and what we can do to change that problem. I knew my family was very proud of me, even if they had no idea what the Task Force was. But at this initial starting point, I wasn't sure what I was doing on the Task Force. Of course, I felt honored to be invited, and as any good law student would, I said yes to an opportunity. At the time, however, I was a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, Latina law student who had completed one criminal law class. I worried that I would not have much to offer.
My first conference call as a Task Force member was very intimidating. Reading everyone's bios was jaw-dropping, inspiring, and scary. Okay, now I really felt out of place. No one was expecting me to talk, right? Maybe no one except Carla Laroche, Task Force cochair, my past clinical professor, and my current sponsor. She loves to laugh, and I make weird jokes when I am nervous, so it really made the space feel less heavy on that first call. The Task Force discussed its first-year goals, including listening to women from various pockets across the country about their unique challenges in the criminal justice profession.
Our first official listening session was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was an incredible time spent listening to powerful testimonies from women who recounted times they were passed over for a promotion, told they could not handle the work, and/or disrespected by coworkers and opposing counsel. None of us really knew what to expect, but this, this rawness, blew us all away. Then came another powerful piece from the trip: dinner.
I looked around...