Life Update: Going to Law School, Donations, and My Admissions Essay

It is official! I AM GOING TO LAW SCHOOL!!! ME!! TAYLOR MOSLEY!!

I will be joining the Class of 2023 at Penn State - Dickinson in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Penn State has two law schools, FYI, I applied and got accepted to Dickinson.

People ask, "Why law school?" Well, I always planned on going to law school following graduation from Vassar College in 2015. Ha, who knew it would take me five years to do it?!

While I am excited, the financial burden weighs heavily. I received a partial scholarship from Penn State - Dickinson and took out federal loans, however, it is still not enough to cover the full cost of my tuition:

Total Estimated Cost of Attendance $77,686.00 / per year

Total Financial Aid with Scholarship $54,500.00 / per year

DONATE

My total out of pocket costs for three years is $69,558.00. This cost covers housing, tuition, food, books, supplies, utilities, and transportation. Please help support my dream by funding my education! I am not only a woman but a black woman. Only 5% of lawyers are African American! Let's increase that statistic starting with me. You can read my personal statement here at the bottom of this post! It explains why I want to be a lawyer.

Donate whatever you want by clicking HERE. $1, $10, $100, or $1,000! I am grateful for anything. Seriously.

BLOG

To accrue additional funds, I will be blogging and vlogging while in law school. My blog will focus mostly on law student life but I will still show you vegan recipes and my regular lifestyle content. I am SUPER excited to show you more home decor content. I will be getting an apartment and my mom is designing it.

Please like and comment on any content you see of mine. You are, literally, helping me fund my education. The more engagement I have the more money I can earn! If you want to know my background and the essay I wrote for my law school admission application, keep reading.

MY PERSONAL STATEMENT (ADMISSIONS ESSAY FOR LAW SCHOOL)

I walked into a local sporting goods store on a Saturday afternoon in 2011. My volleyball season was fast approaching and I needed to buy new equipment. When I entered the store, I expected to find my things quickly, receive great customer service, and leave. I did not, however, expect to be racially profiled by the manager. I did not expect to experience marketplace discrimination and consumer racism at the age of eighteen. That summer, I did not expect to become familiar with the sardonic phrase, “shopping while black.”

Like any other trip to a retail store, I gathered all the items I wanted to try on and headed to the dressing room with my mom. We were there for 30 minutes before I heard pounding on the door. Puzzled and terrified, we looked at each other and frantically got dressed. I barely got my clothes on before the door swung open to reveal a male manager.

Before we asked why he was knocking, he gruffly said, “I need for you all to leave.”

In a demurrable voice, my mom asked, “Why?”

“I just want you to leave,” said the manager.

Once more, my mom asked, “Why?”

“You are exhibiting suspicious behavior! I think you are a shoplifter,” shouted the manager.

At this moment, I remember being extremely confused because our actions were not exhibiting any suspicious behavior. My family and I were acting like typical customers by innocuously trying on items before purchasing. As an eighteen-year-old, I didn’t understand why we were being upbraided and kicked out by the manager. I was incognizant of the situation. I was not aware that the manager crafted a fictions offense against us largely due to his racial bias.

For whatever reason, I didn’t think that racial profiling would happen to me. I lived in suburbia, I went to a private high school, and society classified me as a young adult from the upper-middle class. I only identified my shopping experience as an encounter with racial profiling when my mom discussed the situation with me.

While 2011 was a long time ago, I’ve kept that day in my internal hard drive as a profound shift in my narration and perspective. To some, my verbal encounter with racism may seem insignificant. For me, this day marked a pivotal point in my life because I realized that modern racism is linked to historical laws of oppression by the racial bias that exists today. This “ah-ha” moment led me to become invested in social justice issues and write pieces centered on racial and socioeconomic adversity. The support I have received encouraged me to be a voice that sheds light upon prejudices that impact my African American existence.

I have told this story to a few of my friends and family. While sharing my experience with racial profiling, I’ve found myself in discourses that examine actions driven by racism and how they have limited the power of public policy and civic peace. Racism and prejudices, frankly, affect everything. Prejudices are practically inescapable because they are systematically embedded in our daily lives and persist in our legal and educational systems.

What makes them inescapable is the fact that every human being grows up with biases. The house you were raised in, the country you call home, and the period you were born in all condition your mind to like and dislike certain things. There is nothing wrong with having biases that shape your character and worldview. However, one must be cautious when creating new laws, which may inadvertently generate identities and biases that fuel division and make racist actions plausible. I am drawn to practicing law because our laws today will shape the beliefs and biases within future generations. Furthermore, practicing law will allow me to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and fight against inequality on all levels.