Madame President: HLS AFA
This past March, I was voted a co-president for the 2020-2021 Armed Forces Association. Woohoo!
But let’s briefly back up -
WHAT IS THE AFA?
The Armed Forces Association is a veteran student group at Harvard Law. It’s designed for past and present members of both American and foreign service militaries. The organization’s goal is to provide a network and support system for the law school vets, which is important because HLS has one of the largest vet concentrations in the country.
That’s no accident! Last year, the former Dean of Admissions at U Chicago Law said the following about our high numbers:
“Harvard is leading the way among law schools in its commitment to enrolling more veterans and leveraging this incredible talent pool. The legal profession will benefit many times over from the combination of their life experiences with world-class legal training, as will other fields that HLS graduates routinely dominate, whether in business, government, non-profits, or academia. It will be exciting to see HLS veteran alumni change the world.”
Over the past few years, the AFA has seen positive results from the admissions push for veteran law students. During the ‘18 – ‘19 academic year, HLS had 45 vets enrolled; approximately 20 more entered in ‘19 – ‘20 (including me!) and ANOTHER 22 enrolled this year.
Granted, Harvard is a relatively large law school - but a giant concentration of vets is a huge perk. As a 1L, I grew close to several other 1L vets and received INVALUABLE advice from the veteran 2Ls and 3Ls. I looked forward to AFA events because 1. free food, duh and 2. it was the only place at Harvard where I felt completely comfortable. The AFA is deliberately non-partisan and non-divisive; its entire goal is to set up vets for success, both in and after HLS.
When an email went out last March, requesting candidate statements for the next school years’ board members, I immediately decided to throw my name in the ring. And it worked out!
AFA LEADERSHIP 2020 – 2021
As I mentioned, I’m one of the AFA presidents for the year; my co-president, Alex, is a Navy guy, rising 3L, and former org treasurer (which is wonderful because this is not his first rodeo). We then have four VPs for communications, internal affairs, finances, and guest speakers. The VPs are all 2Ls like me - three are former or current Army, and one was Air Force.* Though the school year just started, our work began back in April! The six of us meet often to provide updates, offer help and insight on various questions, and generally ensure the org keeps running smoothly. So far so good…we’ll see how much things slow down when classes pick up!
*If you’re interested, you can meet them here: https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/armed/leadership/
MADAME PRESIDENT
During the elections last March, I “ran” on a platform of chill-ness, helpful-ness, and community-building, and now I’m working to deliver. Of course, a virtual environment makes that a lot tougher! Last year, the AFA met once a month for an on-campus lunch; we would pick up a TON of catered food (I’m not exaggerating - HLS understands that vets eat a lot) and just hang out. Occasionally we’d bring in a speaker or law firm to give an informal chat, or host more formal speakers for an HLS lunch talk (if you don’t know about those yet, check them out here: https://www.rileyv.com/legallyblondeaf-blog/hls-lunch-talks).
Finally, the AFA put on and participated in various Harvard events throughout the school year. We did a Veterans Day dinner with the law school Dean, hosted potential veteran applicants for a day, helped facilitate Admitted Students Weekend, and worked with the other Harvard vet orgs to put on a Veterans Service Initiative (cancelled because of corona, unfortunately).
Vets are also HUGE fans of swag (see the AFA sweatshirt above!) and last year, the Board scraped together enough money to get everyone a Patagonia. Not sure how we’ll top that, but the pressure is certainly on.
Anyway - these were all INCREDIBLE initiatives, and my co-President and I intend to continue them virtually. But like any young, enthusiastic leaders, we also have some plans of our own…
AFA 2020 - 2021
Our top goals for this school year include the following:
Compile an AFA “Cover Sheet & Resume” Bank
Especially for the 1Ls, who haven’t had to present a resume for a summer job yet! It’s often hard for vets to translate their jobs and accomplishments into valuable civilian terms, so we hope to make that process easier. Plus, there’s no time to stress about your resume during the first year of law school. If we can give our 1Ls a helping hand and relieve a bit of job search anxiety, then mission accomplished!
Establish a “Battle Buddy” Program
Yes, like from kindergarten. We’re working to pair each 1L with a 2L or 3L, so the former always has a point of contact with the AFA. We hope it’ll foster more relationships between classes within the AFA, and help the 1Ls navigate their new legal (and civilian) world. This is especially important in an online environment, since the natural “meet ‘n greet” of AFA meetings are delayed until spring, at least.
Accomplish Some G.I. Bill Dreams
This stuff gets technical (and I’m not on the G.I. Bill, so my knowledge here is limited to begin with!) Basically, the AFA Board wants to take care of our people and ensure their funding doesn’t shut off when they need it most! More to come, but other schools already have the required mechanisms in place – and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
Campus-wide Veteran’s Day Celebration
Work with the other Harvard schools and vet organizations to put together a celebration for Veteran’s Day. Under normal circumstances, the AFA has a dinner with the HLS Deans and highlights a few enrolled 1Ls in a Harvard Law Today article. The second bit might still happen, but we’re hoping to bring all the Harvard schools together for OUR holiday!
MOVING FORWARD
I’ve been working with Alex and the VPs on both existing events and new initiatives, and it’s been extremely rewarding. We met the new 1Ls and vet transfer students last week, and got a few valuable suggestions from them (AFA Slack, anyone?!) and will reunite the whole gang (virtually!) soon. Alex and I split our responsibilities, but my role has largely taken on a “Special Events Coordinator” feel - AND I LOVE IT. If you know me, you know this is a perfect fit! I love listening to our members’ asks, tossing around ideas to get those accomplished, delegating tasks to the Board members, speaking with members of the Harvard administration, and - most importantly - seeing things HAPPEN. Like everything else in the world right now, my role as AFA President comes with unanticipated challenges and modifications to every existing model we have. But as long as I accomplish something useful & helpful for the Harvard vets community, I’ll consider my tenure a success!