Vassar Student and Recent Grad Benefit from Vassar/Law School Partnership
Vassar Student and Recent Grad Benefit from Vassar/Law School Partnership
Law school is a genuine challenge for any aspiring attorney. But thanks to an agreement between Vassar and the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, two Vassar grads will be feeling a little less financial and academic stress when they enroll this fall. Parker Zimmerman ’19 and Emily McDaniels ’18 are the first Vassar student and recent grad to take advantage of the partnership, which provides a generous scholarship as well as mentoring services by law school professors and administrators, some of whom are Vassar grads themselves.
Donna Nagy ’86 (center), Executive Associate Dean at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, with two new law students, Emily McDaniels ’18 and Parker Zimmerman ‘19
Photo: Larry HertzOne of those alums, Donna M. Nagy ’86, is Executive Associate Dean as well as a Professor of Law at Maurer. “We want to attract students from the most prestigious undergraduate programs in the country, so we’re working with the administrators at these schools,” Nagy says. “Vassar is one of 20 schools participating in our scholarship and mentorship programs.”
Vassar signed the agreement with Maurer in 2014, but Zimmerman and McDaniels are the first to take advantage of it, Nagy says.
Zimmerman, a computer science and psychological science double major from San Diego, CA, says Maurer’s generous financial aid package was certainly a factor in his decision to attend, but the comfort level he felt when he visited the school was just as important. “Four years ago, I visited the campuses of several eastern liberal arts schools, and Vassar just fit the best,” he says. “It was the same when I visited the campus at Maurer.”
McDaniels, who took a gap year after she graduated last May to work at a law firm in her hometown of Chapel Hill, NC, agrees. “I went to Maurer on Admitted Students Day and saw immediately that it was a place where I could see myself succeeding, especially with the mentorship services that are being offered,” she says. McDaniels majored in urban studies and French at Vassar and was captain of the swim team.
Nagy says she’s looking forward to joining with other Vassar alums to ensure that Zimmerman and McDaniels get all the support they need when they enroll next fall. “Once we determined that LSAT scores and their academic achievements at Vassar met our standards, we were thrilled that we’d be able to help them make all the Vassar connections when they get here,” she says.
In addition to Nagy, Vassar alum Casey Nemecek ’10 serves as Administrative Director of the Center for Intellectual Property research at the law school. Lee A. Feinstein ’81 serves as Dean of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and David B. Allison ’85 is Dean of the School of Public Health. A number of other professors or staff members at the university are Vassar alumnae/i, too.