{"id":25112,"date":"2018-08-10T09:31:08","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T13:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=25112"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:18","slug":"erin-shields-carleton-english-student-and-killam-fellow-at-smith-college","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/erin-shields-carleton-english-student-and-killam-fellow-at-smith-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Erin Shields: From Carleton English Major to UCLA Law School Scholarship Recipient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Erin Shields: From Carleton English Major to UCLA Law School Scholarship Recipient\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Erin Shields identifies as a major of Carleton\u2019s English<\/a> Department, a contributor to The Globe and Mail<\/em>, a recipient of the 2016 Killam Undergraduate Fellowship, and one of two Distinguished Scholars for the entering class of 2020 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA<\/a>). She is currently pursuing a law degree there on a full scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields made her first foray into American university life when she attended Smith College<\/a> for the duration of one semester in 2016 after receiving the Killam Undergraduate Fellowship. She describes her decision to apply for the scholarship as a \u201cleap,\u201d comparable to the thrilling sensation of skydiving. Reflecting back on when she first found out about the Killam, Shields remembers dreaming about the opportunity, but thinking that she wouldn\u2019t have a chance. As she has since learned, the \u201cleap\u201d has paid off: \u201cFreefall is glorious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of studying in the U.S. appealed to Shields as a potentially different experience from Canadian post-secondary education. \u201cThere is kind of an aura to college <\/em>in the U.S. that I don\u2019t think we get the same way in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields is now studying law at UCLA. She reports that law school is tough, but that it has also been a very rewarding experience so far. She compares her relationship to law school to the mixed feelings of Angelenos towards their city. \u201cThey either love it or they hate it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Just try to be led by what you\u2019re interested in, even if it doesn\u2019t seem to fall into a nice cohesive pattern or path. \u2013 Erin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She adds, \u201cTo me the city feels weirdly representative of my time in law school so far: an incredible mix of ideas and people, and everything is fun and exciting and big with this amazing history \u2014 but you definitely have to go through a lot of unpleasantness (traffic or memorizing 500 torts cases) to get anywhere fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields says that even though there was no defining moment that compelled her to pursue a law degree, she knew she wanted to do it. She says, \u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated by the ways that large groups of people manage to work together, and by the ways that we value and believe certain things as a group, and why we value and believe in those things. Law is one way to think about all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields asserts that her education as an English student at Carleton has proved to be helpful: \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely true that the technical skills you learn in English \u2014 writing, reading critically, research \u2014 are very widely applicable. But even more than that, what I always enjoyed about English is its breadth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields adds further that the range of experience covered by her English courses has helped her relate to students coming from different backgrounds: \u201cI often feel like I know just enough about what they\u2019re passionate about that people are willing to open up and tell me more about whatever that is. I love that.\u201dWhen asked to elaborate, she explained as follows: \u201cIt\u2019s always amazing to me what connections start popping up between courses and ideas that you initially thought had nothing to do with each other \u2013 plus, I think a lot of whatever academic success I\u2019ve achieved has come from connections I\u2019ve made by letting people see my genuine interest and engagement with the material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields leaves some parting advice for English students: \u201cJust try to be led by what you\u2019re interested in, even if it doesn\u2019t seem to fall into a nice cohesive pattern or path.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erin Shields identifies as a major of Carleton\u2019s English Department, a contributor to The Globe and Mail, a recipient of the 2016 Killam Undergraduate Fellowship, and one of two Distinguished Scholars for the entering class of 2020 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is currently pursuing a law degree there on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[587,570],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-25112","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-english","cu_story_type-for-students"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/25112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/25112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31475,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/25112\/revisions\/31475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=25112"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=25112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}