I Choose Hope.
My 2025 Law School Personal Statement
I ask, “Is hope a choice?” Out of the dozen around me, one hand shoots up. My eyes ease toward her. I nod. I am today’s facilitator, ensuring everyone gets a chance to speak and the conversation flows smoothly. She begins. After her, another. I stand, grab a blue marker, and paint the whiteboard with our ideas. Between the breaths of our members, I whisper “The hopeful seek, affirm, and aid the birth of potential. Hope is active.”
This is the Symposium. I am the co-founder and head of this dialogical space. Here, members meet twice a week for philosophical and socio-political discussions. We do not debate. We choose charitable reconstructions and curiosity for the cause of truth and beauty. Our space embodies equity through empathy. Here, nuanced connections thrive. For the past three years, I have laboured to establish the Symposium at school. I wrote our brand identity, designed cultural products, and led a merger with the Philosophy Academic Society to secure legitimacy and funding. I built a governance structure and training modules. From three executives, today I lead a team of 13. In the summer of 2025, I codified this progress into a constitution and by-laws. In these, I merged the Symposium within the Society’s long-existing structure, respecting the institution’s past while creating space for flexibility and accountability.
This leadership reflects my mission: to design systems that foster care, connection, and belonging. At our commuter school, this work was needed and profoundly impactful. Last year, we facilitated 62 meetings and 15 lectures, engaging 35 members who leave with lifelong connections. I applied these skills to my co-founding of two other initiatives at UTM: The Learning Shed, connecting youth and elders, and Youth Advocates for Sustainability, empowering youth to champion the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Hope is a choice. I pursue this work to activate my hope and I intend to carry it forward wherever I go.
In this moment, I choose to go towards the law.
When I choose the law, I choose hope.
You see, I once decided to be a midwife. I tumbled into it because I anticipate climate disruption and societal crises. I sense global tensions and believe our institutions are unprepared. I felt safe in midwifery—a location-flexible, obsolete-resistant profession. I felt sure until I remembered the battle—fear or hope. I fall into fear when overwhelmed by the complex problems we face.
I choose hope when I affirm that I can fix them. I know I can facilitate the re-design of our world. It will not be through changing one element, for our challenges are interconnected. They demand solutions grounded in systems thinking, adaptive leadership, and collective action. To enable change, I need a holistic toolbox.
Legal training is my path. As a public interest lawyer, I will interpret competing truths. I will master the language of legitimacy; the scaffolding of society. I will own the cultural and political competency to address competing needs and institutional resistance. I will craft the language through which cooperation becomes cure. I will uncover collective intelligence to navigate complexity. I’m determined to build frameworks that make justice and connection possible on a global scale.
In all, I wish to sit at the intersection of public advocacy and social entrepreneurship, using organizational design to build a world that supports sustainable life. I believe Osgoode’s innovative approach to legal education is my means of becoming this new lawyer.
In the end, I still chose midwifery but instead of mothers and babies, I nurture cultures and institutions. I coach ideals into reality. I assist in delivering fairer structures and humane possibilities. Provide me with a holistic birthing kit, and I will bring forth change.