The 2018 cycle is officially underway as Queen’s Law recruitment and outreach staff prepare to hit the road next week. This year’s travels will see Aimee Burtch, Andrew Van Overbeke and Ann Deer on both sides of the border, ready to talk to prospective students about all things Queen’s Law.

They’ll start off at the Canadian JD Forum in Toronto on September 17. It’s their first stop at some of the largest assemblies hosted by the Law School Admissions Council. Later in the fall, and for the first time ever, they’ll be appearing at American JD Forums in Boston and New York City.

Other destinations on their roadmap are universities across Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia, where they can interact with prospective students at on-campus fairs and open sessions. In addition, the recruitment team will also connect with undergraduate pre-law societies and law-oriented campus groups, offering opportunities to host smaller, targeted panels that best suit each group’s audience. 

“These are all opportunities for students to ask specific questions they may have and hear from different universities as they begin to engage in the admissions process,” says Burtch. 

For talented young Indigenous students, Deer has a specific mission: to recruit them to apply to professional programs at Queen’s, specifically within the Faculty of Law and Smith School of Business. She’ll be visiting different universities to build relationships with these students in support this mission because, she says, “many potential applicants just don’t know all of what Queen’s offers them, and I want to fill that void.”

Typically, people interested in studying law will visit school websites to find out general admissions and program information as the November 1 application deadline approaches. But that’s only part of the decision-making process. The Queen’s Law recruitment team encourages students to take advantage of the school’s presence during the campus visits or at a forum in order to ask candid questions about student life in Kingston and the opportunities Queen’s has to offer in legal studies. 

Burtch sees first-hand that Queen’s University offers a “great balance between a strong community and academics.” One important part of what makes the Queen’s community a great environment, inside and out of the Faculty of Law, is the diversity of its students and staff. 

To that end, the university engages a variety of recruitment and outreach channels that not only introduce prospective students to its diverse student body and activities, but also continue interactions and connections with a diversity of prospective students. “Students can see and hear our different stories on our website, our Facebook page, and through webinars with professors,” says Deer. Both she and Burtch encourage students to visit the Queen’s campus to meet current students and hear their unique experiences inside the classroom, as part of the diverse student body and the vibrant Kingston community. 

Throughout the coming weeks, the recruitment team invites prospective students to check out the Queen’s Law website for the most up-to-date full schedule of recruiting events, to connect with their own school’s undergraduate pre-law societies, and to reach out to the Queen’s Law Admissions Office as a first point of contact for any questions at jd@queensu.ca. 

By Quinn Brown