A current justice on the United States Supreme Court is coming to the U in January.
Sonia Sotomayor was asked to come to the U by Patrick McShane, the program manager for the My U Signature Experience, or MUSE, project. The MUSE project attempts to build opportunities for students to leave their mark at the U before graduation.
Every year, the MUSE project brings in a keynote speaker who corresponds to its annual theme. This year’s theme is justice.
“Our approach to the theme of justice is broad: it includes the contexts of law and the legal process, social and economic institutions and the developmental path of an individual’s life,” McShane said.
Sotomayor will speak about her book, My Beloved World, and the hardships she faced in her childhood. She grew up the oldest of two in South Bronx in New York City. Her parents moved to the United States from Puerto Rico before she was born. Her mother was a nurse at a methadone clinic and her father, a tool and die maker, passed away when she was nine years old.
As a little girl, Sotomayor became interested in the legal profession when she watched the Perry Mason television series.
In 1976 she received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and graduated from Yale Law school in 1979. Five years later, she entered a private litigation practice specializing in intellectual property.
She began teaching adjunct law at New York University in 1998 and, in 2009, she became a Supreme Court justice, appointed by President Barack Obama.
Chloe Holzman, a junior in ballet, thinks Sotomayor will be a powerful representative for females at the U and will offer a unique perspective on the U.S. justice system.
“It’s really interesting to me the process [Sotomayor] had to get there,” said Holzman. “[She] would have a really great outlook.”
Throughout this year, the MUSE project will also be putting on smaller speaking events. There will be a luncheon lecture series in which faculty members from different departments on campus will speak about their research and interests regarding justice.
McShane believes the lecture series is a great opportunity for students to learn about campus by speaking with students and faculty members in majors and disciplines other than their own.
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