 Good afternoon, my name is Michael Donnelly Boylan, and I am the assistant dean for admissions here at the law school I would like to welcome all of you to Roger Williams University School of Law and to orientation 2017 I Am so glad to see the class of 2020 and it can't even say the words 2020 That I'm glad to see you all finally arrived We've been anxiously waiting for you We in the admissions office have had the distinct pleasure of getting to know you over the last year Thank you for sharing your stories with us The class of 2020 has a wide range of experiences And I am here to tell you a little bit about the folks that you will be calling your classmates For the next three years before I hand the class over to president Faris, Dean Yolanski and the faculty Students in your class attended a wide range of colleges and universities in the United States Including Georgia State West Point Yukon Smith College the University of Delaware Columbia University and the University of Alaska Anchorage Your class has an eggy from Texas A&M Two Hoosiers from Indiana University and a banana slug from the University of California Santa Cruz But some schools sent us more than others Two schools are tied for fifth place on the list of largest feeder schools to your class Those are Quinnipiac University and Stone Hill College with four students each Providence College is in fourth place with five students Rhode Island College is in third with ten students Roger Williams is in second with 13 students and this year the University of Rhode Island is the largest feeder school to your class With 14 students attending In your class you will find the former executive director of the Women's Center of Rhode Island Both a Bristol firefighter and a Bristol police officer a Book editor a therapist a team a first mate on a fishing boat a tennis pro a high school teacher a college professor a General contractor a locomotive engineer You will even find a production assistant from the reality TV show wall burgers Members of your class have worked to better their communities including working with Excuse me including working with children in New York City whose parents are incarcerated Working with at-risk youth at a community center in Boston and working with autistic teenagers in New Haven, Connecticut Someone here has been an advocate for victims of domestic violence at the joint military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii Another classmate has been helping parents whose children are currently in foster care Work towards the reunification of their families here in Rhode Island Someone in your class was already named by go local Prove as an emerging leader in the state of Rhode Island Another classmate has received two citations from the governor of Massachusetts for exceptional service to the African-American community Your class is unusual in a number of ways But one of the things that stood out to you stood up to us about your class is that nine percent of your class was born outside of the United States These classmates were born in Belgium Brazil Cape Verde China the Dominican Republic Egypt El Salvador Mexico Nigeria Norway Pakistan South Korea Syria and Ukraine Yes, many of these classmates are immigrants So you may not be surprised to hear that a number of your classmates have been active in immigration issues before coming to law school Someone in your class has had a career as an immigration paralegal most recently at Tesla Motors One of your classmates is the co-founder of the Center for Refugee Advocacy and support in Providence Another mentored a migrant college student. She herself the daughter of a migrant farm worker a Classmate spent a summer in Chicago helping to resettle refugees upon their arrival in the United States It would make sense then that your classmates are fluent in a large number of languages including French Spanish Dutch Portuguese Hebrew Arabic Russian Greek and Cape Verde in Creole You all have made the most of your college experience in this room You will find the the president of the class of 2017 from here at Roger Williams University The vice president of the student body at Clarkson University and the president of the Asian culture association at the University of North Dakota You have had many interesting internships Including with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate in Boston Victim Services in New London, Connecticut the Michigan coalition against homelessness heroes and villains entertainment in Los Angeles, California Wilhelmina models on South Beach in Florida a fabric company in Kuwait And a park Parks and Recreation Department in Indiana Not Pony Indiana though. I did check President Farish one of the new one L's even served on the presidential search committee that brought you to Roger Williams six years ago Some of you have gained legal experience before coming to law school You have served as paralegals all over the United States Including in Salt Lake City, Utah Tacoma Washington and even Rikers Island prison in New York City Frankly, I lost track of how many of you interned at the Rhode Island Attorney General's office Apparently our alums there are our single best recruiters Some more fun jobs. We have an assistant brewer who helps brew beer in Georgia We have a bakery assistant who spent a season making pastry for Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival and one of your classmates filled in for Christie Brinkley's personal assistant while she was on maternity leave Your class has been very active politically in your class You will find the president of the Stone Hill College Democrats as well as a regional director for the Massachusetts Republican Party and The director of community outreach for the Rhode Island Republican Party You have interned for senators Sheldon Whitehouse Jack Reed Elizabeth Warren and Marco Rubio As well as congressman David Sicilini and Jim Langevin Your classmates have interned at state legislatures throughout the country including in Virginia Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island You have worked on countless political campaigns 6% of your class served in the United States military Most of these classmates served in the US Army with someone here from the Navy and another from the Army National Guard a Number of you served in Iraq and Afghanistan We thank all of you for your service 30% of your class is made up of Rhode Islanders Meaning two-thirds of you are relocating to the Ocean State Another 30% of your class hails from the other New England states and 17% comes from the rest of the Northeast 11% of your class comes from the south 7% from the West And 5% from the Midwest While the Midwest makes up the smallest portion of this class This is actually a big increase for Roger Williams University School of law anyways this year. In fact, there are as many Midwesterners in your class as in the other two classes in the building combined 52% of your class is made up of women and 48% is made up of men The average age of your class is 25 With 15% of you over the age of 30 a number of you are married and some of you have children and 7% of your class identifies as members of the LGBTQ community As of tonight We expect that 28% of your class comes from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the legal community Making your class the most diverse in this law school's history Tonight we will post a word cloud to Facebook and Twitter Representing the class of 2020 we took all the notes that were used to compile this speech and made a word cloud using the most repetitive words If you aren't already following the law school's accounts there check them out tonight You may find some interesting other interesting insights about your new classmates there Finally, I'm very pleased to welcome three students to the masters of studies in law program These students working professionals will be taking classes alongside our JD students while they receive their MSL degree I think you will value the perspective that these students bring to the classroom This year's crop includes a tax assessor a human resource officer and the executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island It has been a pleasure getting to know all of you this this year Please don't be strangers to the admissions office And on behalf of all of us at Roger Williams University School of Law Welcome to law school