Jessica Charles is one of the Armonica Law Student Grant recipients for the 2021-2022 academic year. She is a student at Willamette University College of Law. And this is the inspiring story of her tenacious effort in making her childhood dream come true.
Although she has no one in her family involved in the legal profession, she was surrounded by the sad stories of injustices and unfairness in her community. All she could think of was finding ways to be part of the solution, and that’s why she started to dream of becoming a criminal lawyer when she was little.
Jessica slowly but adamantly started to execute her plan to become a lawyer. First, she became a political science student at Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) in Idaho. Second, she decided to start her legal career at Willamette University with the encouragement of the President of NNU, Joel Pearsall, who is also a Willamette graduate with a J.D. degree.
However, she had to borrow the maximum student loans to attend law school. She says that she was not truly aware of how expensive it can get to reach her goal. She started delivering food to meet ends during her hectic law school schedule. But these financial struggles did not keep her away from starting clerking at the Public Defender of Marion County without getting paid. Although there are no financial incentives in being a public defender clerk, Jessica is happy to interact with people in need and learn criminal law by being involved directly in the legal process.
After her law school mentor Tiffany Keast, a member of Oregon Women Lawyers, encouraged her to apply for the Armonica Law Student Grant, she became one of the grant recipients. The Armonica grant is not only supporting her financially. Jessica is also excited to meet her Armonica grant mentor Oregon Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Duncan, an active members of Oregon Women Lawyers.
Jessica is now one step closer to fulfilling her dream to become a criminal public defense lawyer. While she is currently busy finishing law school, she is already planning to be there for other women lawyers!
