Law School Graduate Prepares to Become a Force for Change
Jewel Watson entered college aware of the doors that intellectual promise can open and determined to do something for those whose path to success was not as smooth.
As a high school student in Brooklyn, she was in a special program where she benefited from the support shown by teachers and college advisors. “Students like me. . . went on to college because of our access to resources," she said. "My peers who attended the same high school but were not in the specialized program were not so fortunate. Since my days as a high school student in Brooklyn, I have been interested in making sure that all Americans have the opportunity to determine their own destiny.”
As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, Watson co-directed a prestigious local mentoring program, served as a research analyst in Madrid for the Office of the High Commissioner of Refugees in Spain, taught public policy to New York City high school seniors, and collected numerous honors for scholarship, citizenship, and service to the community.
After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science and policy studies, she participated as a New York City Urban Fellow in a nine-month program that involved working with mayoral offices and city agencies and taking a seminar on urban public policy. She then worked as a special assistant and senior analyst for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services.
Watson, concerned since high school about the influence of societal expectations on opportunity, recognized that a legal education would provide her with the skills to be a force for change in her community. Her desire to attend a law school with a strong connection to its home community made Rutgers School of Law–Newark an obvious choice. Once admitted, she learned about the Minority Student Program and its legacy and was determined to participate in the program.
Watson has taken advantage of every opportunity to explore the different facets of being an attorney in a variety of sectors. She spent her first summer at Lowenstein Sandler PC, “surrounded by some of the best in their respective practice areas and could not help leaving a better attorney.” Fall semester of her second year, she interned at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, which she describes as a “think-and-do tank where I learned the importance of not just thinking deeply about issues but actually doing something about them.” The following spring she interned for the Honorable Patty Shwartz, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey.
Applying for an Eagleton Fellowship was a must for Watson because she knew it would help her develop a new skill set and learn from inside the political process. “I firmly believe,” she says, “that the sociopolitical power structure in our society has begun to position itself to take a hard look at the underclass and why so many have fallen through the cracks of society. As a result, I have long been interested in the political arena.”
Serving this year as an Eagleton Raimondo Fellow, Watson sees how the skills acquired in law school can be effective in government. The fellowship combines work with the New Jersey State Assembly Majority Office and an intensive legislative policy seminar.
A highlight of the yearlong fellowship was a trip, titled “Women Who Dared,” led by Ruth B. Mandel, Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. The Eagleton Fellows met four women from various sectors of political life who not only dared to participate in public life but who also have left their mark – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Barbara Boxer, ABC/NPR News Correspondent Cokie Roberts, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Notwithstanding the achievements of all the women I met that day, I would have to say that getting the chance to meet with Justice Ginsburg was the highlight of my trip,” Watson says. “I asked her what advice she would give to a law student or a young attorney. Her answer was simple but resonated deeply with me. She said that you have to be of service to your community in some way. She also said that she was sure from her time at Rutgers–Newark Law that I had already learned that lesson. She could not have spoken truer words.”
At Rutgers, Watson’s honors include Dean’s Merit Scholar, Moot Court Board member, Whitman Family Scholar, New Jersey Bar Association Scholar, Garden State Bar Scholar, and Eagleton Institute Henry J. Raimondo Legislative Fellow. Among other activities she has served as president of the Association of Black Law Students and a competitor in the David Cohn Appellate Advocacy Competition.
After graduation Watson will clerk for Justice Helen E. Hoens of the New Jersey Supreme Court then return to Lowenstein Sandler. Looking farther out, “I am open to all of the possibilities,” she says, “and will continue to be of service wherever I land.”
Whatever her future brings, Watson says, it will be shaped by her experience – “as a daughter of hard working immigrants who stressed the importance of education as a tool of agency, her desire to be a role model for a younger sister and by a husband who, notwithstanding being an accomplished attorney himself, has made my goals his goals.”