By Chris Patrick, staff writer
Emily Gabor wants to do international development work to help countries grow. After undergrad, she traveled to Ghana to volunteer for a non-governmental organization that donates funding and equipment to eye clinics.
“It was an interesting and fun experience, but I definitely felt that I could be doing something more useful,” Gabor says. She wanted to do more hands-on, client-based work. So instead of pursuing a master’s in development economics as she’d originally intended, Gabor decided to go into law.
Gabor is currently in her second year at William & Mary Law School and a student in the Virginia Coastal Policy Center. She’s been a graduate research fellow for Roy Hoagland, co-director of the Center, since her first week of law school.
In the Center, Gabor has an opportunity to do the hands-on, client-based work she enjoys while collaborating on the southeast community project. The southeast community in Newport News is considered vulnerable to recurrent flooding and sea level rise because of its location and socioeconomic composition. For the project, Gabor will evaluate the impact of sea level rise, zoning changes, and landscaping plans on the community and explore how community members are or can be involved in creating solutions for sea level rise.
“I’m excited to be in the Center this semester because it gives me a chance to learn in a different way than traditional law classes,” Gabor says. “I’m actually working with people and doing legal work. I think that’s a great opportunity for any law student.”
Gabor wants to work in international public law after she graduates, but she’s interested in environmental issues too. She’s co-president of the Student Environmental & Animal Law Society and an assistant symposium editor with the Environmental Law and Policy Review.
Gabor received her bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2012, double majoring in economics and political science. She a native of Milwaukie, WI.
An extension partner of Virginia Sea Grant, VCPC at William & Mary Law School provides policy and legal analysis to its partners on coastal resource and community issues in its mission to educate and train the future lawyers and leaders of tomorrow.
