Welcome to 2020! As we greet this exciting new year, I thought this would be a good time to recap the year that was: 2019.
We began 2019 by ushering in our first cohort of “spring start” online students – these are the first MSL students to begin studies in the Spring semester. Having a spring start means we engage in the admissions process throughout the entire year, and students who enter the program in the same year might actually be at different places in the program – it can be confusing! But we are adjusting to this new format, and we are happy to be able to accommodate the more constant pace of online programs.
During the Spring term, a group of students, led by MSL student (now graduate) Alice Lu, organized an “Acts of Kindness” event, during which MSL students provided hot chocolate, baked goods, and a compliment to the rest of the law school community. JD and LLM students joined us for snacks and mingling. Fun!
In early May, we held the first-ever MSL Symposium to celebrate the five year anniversary of our novel program. The symposium was the brainchild of MSL student (now graduate) Javier Jara. The symposium began with a walk-around session, where MSL students presented posters describing projects they had completed during the program. From the Entrepreneurship Lab to the Data Science class to Independent Study work to projects completed in connection with jobs and internships, a wide range of interesting ventures were represented. The poster session was followed by student presentations in Thorne Auditorium, a keynote speech, and the first conferral of outstanding faculty awards voted by the graduating students. (The winners were Michael Barsa and Nancy Gamburd.) Check out a video of the symposium highlights here.
Mid-May, we celebrated the accomplishments of our 73 new MSL graduates. One highlight of our extended celebration was the performance of an MSL band, who formed themselves, rehearsed, and put on an amazing show – they performed at our Symposium and Graduation receptions. We’ve always been impressed by the musical abilities of our students, and we were so happy to see this band come together for a truly special performance.
May was a big month. In addition to the Symposium and Graduation, the week after graduation, we held our first-ever residential Power Week for online students. The week included three MSL classes: Negotiations Skills & Strategies with Lynn Cohn, Contract Drafting with Chris Martin, and Ethics with Wendy Muchman and Mary Foster. In between classes, we ate a lot of food, lunched with the Dean, attended a Cubs game, and enjoyed a banquet at Lao Sze Chuan.
In August, we welcomed the largest cohort of MSL students ever! Orientation was eventful and productive. Of course, it culminated in the big faculty-student lunch, at which I once again insisted that every student introduce themselves.
We launched a few new online classes in the fall: Jay Koehler’s Quantitative Reasoning, Darren Green’s Advanced Contracts, Esther Barron’s Entrepreneurship Law, and Nadav Shoked’s Regulatory Policy. These online classes were the first to welcome the enrollment of residential students; our academic rules now allow residential students to take some online classes, and online students to take some residential classes, thus opening up even more curricular options!
We held our second alumni reunion in October and were thrilled to have representation from all MSL classes in attendance. We had a lunch (Bombay Wraps, of course), speed networking, receptions, parties – you know what I’m talking about. We also had a productive meeting of our Alumni Club Board.
We finished the year strong with sparkling student presentations in the required Public Persuasion classes taught by Professors Jason DeSanto and K.M. Zouhary – the quality and intensity of these presentations was truly noteworthy.
As we gear up for more exciting happenings in 2020, we want to thank you all for your continued involvement in the MSL program. While many things about the program have developed over time, the MSL program still retains its essential identity as a group of interesting, intelligent, involved, and creative students. Our story continues to unfold!
-Leslie Oster
MSL Program Director
