Emma Grace Maroni ‘26 is a senior English major with minors in Italian and Environmental Science. With plans for law school after graduation, Emma Grace is spending the fall semester interning at the Court Service Center at the Franklin County Justice Center and has another legal internship lined up for the spring. Connect with Emma Grace on LinkedIn to learn more about her work.
Can you tell me about the legal internship you’re doing right now? What kind of work do you do?
I am working at the Court Service Center (CSC) at the Franklin County Justice Center in Greenfield. The CSC is a free resource that exists to help self-represented litigants (people who are representing themselves) with legal information, helping to fill out court forms, and connecting them to other community resources based on their needs. It has been really interesting to learn about the barriers to justice that exist within the judicial system and how best to remedy them. However, my favorite part has been connecting with court users, hearing their stories, and being a part of helping them.
And, you have another legal internship lined up for the spring! What will that internship involve?
Next semester, I will be working at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in their Children and Family Law Division. They are the public defender agency for Massachusetts and provide legal representation for people who cannot afford to hire a private attorney. This Division specifically seeks to provide legal services for indigent children. My internship will include client interviews, legal research, drafting pretrial motions, affidavits, legal memoranda, and pretrial investigation, including visiting the locations of alleged crimes and interviewing witnesses. I’m really excited for this opportunity and super grateful to be able to participate in it.
What interested you in law/legal studies?
I actually got interested in the legal field through an environmental science class that I took my first year. The professor, Rob DeConto, worked a lot with the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change and would teach basic scientific concepts through explaining his own experiences working on the policy side of the scientific community. What I found really interesting about the policy aspect were the specifics about the laws/policies that governed how countries and industries were directed to act. What I can extract from my interest in policy is something that I think a lot of English majors (and those outside of it) can agree with: the immense power of the written word.
I am passionate about writing and reading, and that is a major part of working in the legal field. I like that there is a career path that can allow me to engage in work that I am passionate about while also making a real difference in people’s lives. Over the course of my studies, I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from a lot of brilliant professors and peers who have guided me into developing a passion for social justice, which is at the core of why I want to go into the legal field.
Did any of your English classes prepare you for your internship?
Yes, of course! I studied English because I wanted to understand how people communicate their feelings, their desires, and their place in the world. All of my English classes have been extremely impactful in teaching me how to be a better communicator and how we build the worlds around us. I have a high level of appreciation for my English classes because we learn how to write more clearly and effectively, but we also talk about historical and societal injustices written about in literature. I think that is extremely important in being able to interact with our current situation and also acknowledge the faults in it.
Outside of the English Department, I would say that any class that makes you think outside of your comfort zone will give you real world skills that you can use in personal and professional settings. Whether it be political science or classics or environmental science or math, you will always be able to draw out valuable learning opportunities from them. Or at the very least, maybe you’ll get a connection out of it.
Do you know what you want to do after graduation?
My long term plan is to attend law school after graduation. I will be taking at least one gap year to work and build on my skills that I hope to bring with me to law school and beyond. I’m a big supporter of taking a break in between undergrad and grad school because not only does it give me a little growing room, but it also allows me to be present in my senior year of college.
What advice do you have for English majors who are interested in law/legal studies?
Don’t let the label of a humanities major prevent you from going for opportunities outside of HFA. Having an English background is extremely valuable because we’re taught a different set of skills here that allow us to interact and communicate with the world differently than someone who has a scientific or social science background. So, my real advice is to take classes that you enjoy and that you are able to get a lot out of. There will be a time where you cannot read James Joyce for a whole semester or dissect one paragraph from a novel for a final essay. Bounce around different departments and learn about things you won’t be able to once you leave college. Learn a new language or study abroad or take a class that excites you even if it doesn’t count for major or minor credits. I’m extremely grateful for everything that I have learned in the English Department throughout my time at UMass. They’ve been instrumental in fostering my growth not only as a writer, but as a person. I wish that every English major is able to feel that their degrees will be a pillar that their diverse professional endeavors will lean on, because that is what it is for me.
Learn more about English majors and alumni who have interests in law: