Encouraging connections within the Brandeis community: A Q&A with SBA leadership

With the start of a new school year, the 2016-17 Student Bar Association leadership has the opportunity to move forward on its goals. Chief among them is connecting Brandeis students, faculty and alumni to maintain and build a strong community.

SBA President Katie Bonds and Vice President Brandon Guernsey took a few minutes to talk about that goal, what brought them to Brandeis and how they balance family life with law school.

What are some of your goals for SBA this year?

Katie Bonds:
It’s two-pronged. One, to be more involved with our faculty and staff because these are people that not only educate us, but they’re sources of motivation, they’re sources of personal support, they’re sources of jobs. They’re a huge resource and we need to be more mindful of that and take advantage of that. We want to facilitate a connection between students and staff.

For one of our fundraisers, we want to take about 10 professors and hope they’re in good spirits and maybe do a fundraiser for Halloween. It’ll be students trying to get their favorite professor to act silly on Halloween.

In addition to that, we want to do more things that involve alumni on more of an informal level. Not just when you get to on-campus interviews or not just when you get to a panel, but really cool incentives to go to places and to have attorneys be there and for it to be an informal connecting place.

Brandon coined it “Live LinkedIn” as an event that we’re going to have in the fall. It’ll be a cocktail hour with current students connecting with their professors and those professors connecting them with alumni that they loved.

Brandon Guernsey:
Some of our professors have been here a very long time. So they have to have students that are practicing attorneys in Louisville that can come in and meet current students. We can ask professors if they know alumni that can come to these events, and it’ll be a time for alumni to catch up with professors and students to talk with professors. Then, the professor can introduce students to alumni.

How can SBA help build the Brandeis community?

Guernsey:
Sometimes law school has a bad rap and it can be really stressful. We like to let people know that we can be fun too. We did that (Running Man Challenge) video as a bonding thing with SBA but also to show everybody that even though we’re in law school and are “professionals” we can still have a good time. I think that we can do all of the above. We can have our serous side when we need to be serious and we can let loose and let live for a little while.

Bonds:
Life’s serious enough sometimes. You can’t take yourself too seriously. That’s something that we all need to remember sometimes. We’re always performing, essentially. We’re always on the spot. It’s nice sometimes to step back and be silly.

Guernsey:
I don’t find ourselves to be a competitive law school, but I think we can be a community as a law school that really gets along with one another, so that at the end of the day, when graduation happens and we all become lawyers, we can refer people to each other. Being that facilitator of alumni, student, faculty interaction — I think that’s our biggest goal. We just want to make sure that everybody has as good of an experience at this law school as we had our first and second years.

Brandeis took home two major awards at the American Bar Association's annual meeting this summer. How do you see your relationship growing with the ABA?

Bonds:
I don’t think we realized how big it can be. Our goal is to not just build on that community with the ABA, but really just let it motivate us to be a better law school. While we strive to win these awards, we have to do things to get them.

In addition, the ABA is a huge facilitator. They can help with funding. They can help with getting us speakers. I think the ABA connection can do a lot of good for this school.

Guernsey:
We really met some cool people from other law schools while we were in San Francisco. We could even build on those relationships. That’s just one facet that the ABA can give students if they’re active in it. I think it’s great to have an organization that’s built just to help young lawyers. We leaned while we were there that we can apply as a school for grants from the ABA to send speakers here. When I heard that, I thought it was fantastic.

Why Brandeis?

Bonds:
I grew up in West Virginia and had done a lot of sales jobs in the past and had always had this inkling in the back of my mind that I wanted to do law school. Just after I turned 27, my husband and I were sitting at the dinner table and we just were like, “If you’re going to make that jump, just do it.”

So we started looking into different local locations. We had come to Louisville a few times on business with his work and fell in love with the city. Of course, it was natural that I apply here. We came to visit and immediately fell in love. We loved the atmosphere. It has character but there were the modern updates that we needed. The faculty and staff were so welcoming from day one. It wasn’t like they were just selling you. It was like they were committed already to ensuring that you were going to be happy here. Once I came for an actual sit-in and tour, I was sold. I knew that even if other law schools accepted me, this was where I was going to go.

It started out with being a public interest-type inspiration and of course this was a wonderful fit for that. But in addition to that, the legal community here was so awesome, so it let me know that I didn’t just have to market myself in one specific little area. I realized that there were so many opportunities and I’ve been able to dabble in all of them based on the community that Brandeis has provided for me.

Guernsey:
I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had a career before this. Graduate school as always something that I knew I wanted to do. When it came time to decide, “Is this something I’m actually going to do?” I decided to just apply.

I didn’t want to go to any of the law schools in Utah. My wife was born in Indianapolis and she just really liked this area of the United States. When it came time to apply for law schools, we applied to about 10 or so in this general region. We flew out over Memorial Day weekend, and while we were here, we went to all the schools that had accepted me.

When we came here, it was just the most overwhelming feeling of, “This is where I need to be”’ The faculty was awesome. I was given a tour by (Assistant Dean of Admissions) Camilo Ortiz and the entire time, I just felt like this was a very welcoming place. I came from a smaller undergrad and I was used to the open-door policy of going in and talking to professors, getting to know them on a more personal level. And that’s what I wanted and what I think I need to be successful in my classes — a feeling of “My professors actually care about me.” And that’s definitely what I have here. I’m close with just about every single one of my professors that I’ve had. And I think that that’s something that speaks volumes about our school. When we came here, we were planning to go to even more schools, but after we came here, we were like, “What’s the point?” I knew immediately that this is where I was going to go to law school.

The entire application process was just really smooth with this school. When I got my acceptance letter, Professor Sam Marcosson actually wrote me. Dean Duncan called my cell phone and said congratulations. I was immediately a person to them. I wasn’t just a name on a piece of paper.

You’re both married and had careers before entering law school. What’s life as a nontraditional student like for you?

Bonds:
We did have careers beforehand, so we at least want to achieve those same goals and be as successful as we were before, but really, to push forward. In addition, we’ve both asked our spouses to give up a lot to get us through this, so it’s been really important to strive even harder because of them. It’s almost like an encouraging factor to be married and have somebody like that but it’s also a really comforting factor too because this is incredibly stressful and sometimes you don’t feel good enough and sometimes you feel like it’s just too much. You have the support of the school, but then you have a spouse at home.

Guernsey:
I have two children at home and a third on the way. And people oftentimes say, “I don’t know how you juggle family with law school.” My response to them is, “I don’t know how you’re doing it by yourself.” To me, my family is such a support and a motivation to accomplish the things that I want to do. And although I’m busy, I function best when I’m busy. It’s a driving factor for me to do well.

Bonds:
And it almost encourages us to be more mindful of prioritizing and time management. We get done what we need to get done.

Guernsey:
Law school is stressful. It’s so easy for me to go home. If I need to cry on someone’s shoulder, I can. And you know that that person is always there.

Bonds:
It’s more than just comfort. It’s more than just support. It’s a safe space. It’s a haven.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

Guernsey:
I used to be a drug test administrator for professional sports teams. I met some pretty cool people. That’s the funny part — I don’t care about sports.

Bonds:
My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, jelly, bologna and cheese — all on one. You have to do grape jelly. It doesn’t work any other way. American cheese.