Kate Warner Asquith, '08

Majors: Biology & Environmental Studies

After graduating from MC, Kate Asquith traveled from the Southeast all the way up to the Pacific Northwest, attending the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle.  There she had the honor to serve as Managing Editor of Washington Law Review, participated in multiple Moot Courts, and graduated with honors in 2011, finishing in the top 15% of her class. Today, with JD in hand and having passed the Tennessee Bar, Asquith is beginning her "dream job" as an attorney specializing in environmental issues.

She writes this update from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

How Maryville College Helped Me Land My Dream Job

I just finished a one-year clerkship with the Alaska Supreme Court, and now my husband and I are moving to Chapel Hill, NC, so that I can begin my dream job as an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.  At SELC, I’ll be working on a wide range of litigation and policy affecting the environment in the Southeast.  I absolutely believe the skills I gained and opportunities I had at MC helped to get me here.

For example, the strong research and writing background I developed at MC has been invaluable in my legal career.  From the first-year writing program to my senior thesis, almost every MC class emphasized a writing component, which allowed me to cultivate and polish my skill set with professors who actually read and critiqued what I turned in.  Law is a career focused primarily on research and writing, and this training helped me do well on law exams (all long-form essays) and to earn coveted accolades like a position on the law review and an appellate clerkship following graduation.

MC also helped me build a strong resume.  My MC professors helped connect me with internships in nationally recognized organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Mississippi State University’s Plant Pathology Department.  The Center for Calling and Career helped me obtain the funding that made my internships possible.  When I got to law school, I had the job experience to be competitive in a strong applicant pool.

-- Kate Warner Asquith