While you are worried about upcoming finals or getting job or internship interviews, Amelia Peterson not only shares your concerns but also prepares to help her home country of Zimbabwe and care for her newborn.

“This sounds crazy, but my brain seemed to work a lot better when I was pregnant,” says Peterson while laughing.

Peterson, 30, is a second-year student at Valparaiso Univer­sity School of Law in Indiana. With a successful first year un­der her belt, she had planned to try out for her school’s law journal, but giving birth to her daughter during the write-on period nixed that plan.

She says juggling her law school life with her home life is not as difficult as some may think.

“After 5 p.m., I’m a mom,” Peterson says. “I pretend I’m at work from 8 to 5 in the law school. I don’t study at home, which surprises a lot of my classmates. It’s discipline and a time-management thing, and so far it’s working for me.”

Peterson arrived in the United States in 2002 and earned her undergraduate degree in international busi­ness from Johnson & Wales University in Colorado, where she met her husband, who is also from Zimbabwe.

“When I started interna­tional business, I became very interested in globalization and the behavior of U.S. companies when they manufacture goods in third world countries, and my thesis was about that and sustainable development,” Peterson says. “I became interested in rights of people who were being profited off of by big U.S. companies and felt like those were the people who were being forgotten. I want to push for better working conditions for people like that.”

Peterson said she and her husband look forward to mov­ing back to Zimbabwe within the next decade but not too soon. “If we were to go back to Zimbabwe right now, we wouldn’t be able to get jobs,” she explains. “With the trade embargo against Zimbabwe right now, everything is in shambles, and it’s a difficult place to live in at the moment.”

So Peterson plans to finish law school and gain relevant job experience while her hus­band finishes his work to earn a Ph.D. before moving back to Zimbabwe. She dreams of using her law degree at the national level in her home country to help formulate policy with non­governmental organizations to address human rights issues.

“Back in Zimbabwe I want to help with establishing the rule of law,” Peterson says. “I’d like to work to establish a fair and balanced judiciary system that isn’t biased. Right now people are being murdered in Zimbabwe, and victims’ family members have no legal recourse that is working.” In addition to helping people gain better working conditions and have access to a reliable judicial system, Peterson says she also wants to work with charities to provide meals to thousands of children before their school days begin.

Growing up in Zimbabwe with a father who was a road engineer and a mother who was a nurse, Peterson says she and her five siblings had the “best childhood anyone could’ve ever asked for,” even though there was a lot of unrest in the country.

Peterson says there are still relatively safe places left in Zimbabwe, and she looks forward to having her daughter experience the same school systems in which she flourished.

“People in Zimbabwe have a strong sense of community,” she says. “Neighbors love your kids like their own. My husband and I attended boarding school in Zimbabwe, and the educa­tion I received there is compa­rable to good U.S. schools.”

Peterson says she and her husband are hopeful that Zimbabwe will emerge from its economic collapse a bet­ter country in terms of more opportunities for its people, and that its government will provide the basics for its citizens—such as security.

“I’d like for people to know that I was born at the height of my country’s war for indepen­dence, so things like gunfire and burning villages… I’m familiar with those things,” Peterson says. “Living now in a small American town where it’s safe and kids are running around everywhere—it feels like an alternate universe.”

Peterson says she appreci­ates everything the United States has to offer, including its system of institutions of higher learning and its friendly people.

“I really appreciate this country and its people for expanding my mind and helping me to help my home country,” Peterson says.   •

Hays Burchfield

Hays Burchfield is a third-year law student at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Do you know a distin­guished law student who would make an interest­ing subject for Spotlight? E-mail suggestions and contact information to studentlawyer@abanet.org (subject line: Spotlight).

88 I STUDENT LAWYER I January 2010

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