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Joseph Smith
July 2008
The VLP is proud to
announce that the
Outstanding Law Student
Volunteer for
July 2008 is Joseph
Smith. Joseph is a
second year student at
the U of A College
of Law, and has
volunteered in the Domestic
Relations Clinic,
Guardianship Clinic and
the Bankruptcy
Reaffirmation Clinic since
January 2008. Joseph is
incredibly
personable and has a
knack for relating
to clients and making
them feel at ease.
He is bright, caring and
committed to
helping others. His work
with the VLP
has been exemplary.
Joseph was born in
Penticton, British Columbia, but his family moved to Orem,
Utah when he was a just a
toddler. Although he retains joint citizenship, Joseph
has great appreciation
and respect for the American way of life. He studied
American culture and
society at Brigham Young University because of his
desire “to know what
makes America so great, why it is so important.” What
he learned about our
country and our freedoms eventually led him to join the
National Guard. After
joining, Joseph was stationed at Ft. Huachuca and has
lived here in Arizona
with his wife and three children for most of the last ten
years.
Reflecting back on
his first year of law school, Joseph says that Professor
David Marcus had a
profound effect on him. “First, he dropped kicked the
Rules of Federal
Civil Procedure across the room and almost got the book
into the garbage
can as he tried to make a theoretical point about how the
rules are
‘garbage’ sometimes. He made the law come alive for me.” Joseph
also states that
his experiences in law school and the VLP have changed his
view of the legal
system. “I now have a glimpse of how challenging it can be
to navigate
through the legal system to meet the requisite timeliness and
bureaucracy of our
legal system.”
It is hard to
believe that someone who is a 2nd year law student,
father of
three, and a
Captain in the Arizona Army National Guard has any free time,
but Joseph does
manage to find some free time every now and then. He
uses that time to
read, watch Scrubs or CNN, or to take his wife on a
special
date to Gavi’s
Restaurant. He’s also hoping to find the time to return to San
Diego, California
where he vacationed with his family this past March. “It was
the first time
[the kids] had seen the ocean and every night they would go
and play in the
surf and pick up sea shells. I can’t wait to go back.”
Joseph became involved
with the VLP to help “make a
difference in someone
else’s life. I know VLP
affords me the opportunity to help people with various
legal issues that
sometimes are complex and overwhelming.” When asked
about the most important
thing he’s learned from volunteering with the VLP,
Joseph comments:
Never stop giving
and caring. One afternoon I worked with (volunteer
attorney) Dean
Christoffel and watched how he was personable and
cared. He had a
positive impact on everyone he interacted with. I
walked away
wanting to be just like that, someone with the ability to
transform other
people by showing them compassion.
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Past Outstanding Volunteer
Student Awards |
