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The old saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know,” rang true for IU McKinney 3L Julia Zuchkov as she began her legal studies. Zuchkov founded the First Generation Law Student Society, a student group at the law school, to help smooth the way for IUPUI undergraduates who are considering law school.

Zuchkov and other members of the First Generation Law Student Society collected LSAT prep books; created an advice column to address on-campus interviewing, networking, and other relevant topics; and strive to coordinate events and streamline resources that can benefit fellow first generation law students. The LSAT resources are housed in Cavanaugh Hall in room 504J (in the photo at right) and are made available to undergraduate students preparing for law school.

Originally from California, Zuchkov went to the University of California Davis for her undergraduate studies. After that, she worked for the City of West Lafayette in the Development Department, where she implemented policies and initiatives that directly benefitted the community. In that role, she worked closely with lawyers and said she became intrigued by the way they thought through problems. “I wanted to learn how to think like a lawyer!” she said. “I also think having specialized knowledge gives people a unique ability to help others, and I wanted to be able to maximize that potential.”

Zuchkov is a first-generation American, her parents are from Ukraine, and she is the first person in her family to go to university. “It wasn’t until law school that I began to feel I was missing out on valuable generational knowledge,” she said.

After beginning her legal studies, Zuchkov also began to examine what she didn’t know, and what other first-generation law students wouldn’t know either. “First-generation law students have an additional burden of learning the unwritten intricacies of the legal profession,” she said. Doing well in her classes was a given, Zuchkov said, “but I didn’t realize how important it was to also identify and build toward peripheral goals. It feels as if there are a billion things law students are supposed to be doing beyond just being prepared for class: Meet attorneys in the area, sign up for the local bar association, make sure your résumé is always updated in a lawyerly style, join a law review, do moot court, do an externship, do a clerkship, it is just endless!”

Zuchkov said she found help was readily available when she asked for it, from her peers, faculty members, and local attorneys. “But I know some students struggle with identifying when they need help or knowing the right questions to ask,” she said. “I thought it would be helpful to sort of crowdsource all this information and create a central repository of advice and resources that students can access. We hope that having a welcoming community of peers who can provide access to mentorship, advice, and resources will help first-generation students maximize their professional and personal success.”

It's a set of resources that will be put to good use, said Professor Erin Engels, J.D. ’99. Professor Engels is a clinical associate professor, director of the ABA Approved Paralegal Studies Program, and the pre-law academic advisor in the Department of Political Science at the IU School of Liberal Arts.
“Most of the students at IUPUI do not have extra money for LSAT study materials,” Professor Engels said. “My students are forced to rely solely on free materials for their LSAT prep.  Now we have an entire library of materials available for our students to use.  The students can select study materials that will help them to adequately prepare for the LSAT.  I genuinely appreciate the collection efforts of Julia and her fellow group members.”