Out with the Intro

I decided to start this mini blog to share my recent experiences with wrapping up law school, travelling, and coming to terms with finishing that education stage in life and becoming, for all intents and purposes other then age, an adult professional.  I wanted to do more then just the casual status update on Facebook and for those friends and family who want to know what I've been up to I wish I could afford the long distance charges to keep everyone up to date but this will have to do for now (at least until I see you in person).

Just to catch everyone up to where I am in life right now here's the short version.  If you already know what's been going on recently with me then go ahead and skip to the next entry, this is going to be a bit dry.  I grew up on a small farm in the central valley of California with good friends and an amazing family.  My family has always been a great mix of 4th generation German (mostly), and 1st generation Chinese.  We weren't rich, in fact there were some seasons where we were worried we would have to more then tighten our belts.  But our family has always been there to back us up and make sure we always made it though the toughest droughts and winter freezes (both which wreak havoc on crops).  I worked hard through school and did well in high school, and was lucky enough to get into a good college.

In Berkeley, I did my share of social activism volunteering my time to raise awareness of mixed race families and then got into international micro-finance. After graduating from Berkeley majoring in Political Economics, with a minor in Asian Studies, I took the LSAT and applied to law school.  I chose to go to Penn State, Dickinson School of Law mostly because of the faculty and learning environment.  I didn't just want to be your average general practice lawyer I wanted to work on international legal issues so I decided to pursue a Masters in International Affairs alongside my juris doctorate.  For the last 4 years I have focused on international human rights, security, energy, contracts, trade, and other international aspects of the law.  Besides working back home during the summers in a legal capacity I was also was able to go overseas and work in Hong Kong, researching and tackling all kinds of issues, from trans-sexual marriage rights and dual citizenship/residency tax law, to international corporate law and nonprofit reporting.  Fast forward to today I've been given the opportunity to finish my last semester in law school in the Netherlands as a legal intern for a UN body.  I'm really looking forward to this opportunity, the journey, and all the experiences to come and this is where I'll be sharing them.