Dear Friends,

As you have probably heard, Santa Clara Law is enjoying an exceptional surge in applications which has empowered us to admit incoming classes of extraordinary talent, achievement, experience, and character. On Saturday, nearly 200 of our newest admitted students and their guests joined us for our extremely successful Admitted Student Day. In true Santa Clara Law spirit, our caring faculty, staff-educators, administrators, and current students embraced them with warmth, support, guidance, and joy! 

Please join me in thanking our remarkable admissions and operations team who perfectly orchestrated the entire gathering: Caitlin Jachimowicz, Ryan Bindi, Emily Grossman, Patty Lopez, Eric Tannenwald, Alexa Othon, and Richard Landowski. Special thanks to Alexa and Richard who impeccably managed all of the logistics and kept us on time and on message, and to Patty and Ryan who lovingly reassured all of our admitted students that we will help them every step of the way in affording their Santa Clara University legal education, including through our unique and innovative PLEDGE Scholarship. 

Great thanks also to so many of you who gave up a big part of your weekend to be with us, including Nicole Maxwell, Fiona McKenna, and Dori Pina, who spoke beautifully about the programs, centers, clinics, and deep learning experiences that set our law school apart, as well as Vangie Abriel, David Ball, Lauryn Barbosa-Findley, Anna Benvenue, Sean Bland, Hallie Bodie, Sarah Brockmeyer, Emily Burns,Taylor Dalton, Theodore Ko, Brian Love, Sandee Magliozzi, Brenda Martinez Salcedo, Rianna Mendoza, Pamela Nonga Ngue, Debbie Snyder, Tseming Yang, and Eric Wright. You were all wonderful! 

On behalf of our entire law school community, I also want to express our collective gratitude to our remarkable student leaders—Barbara Chung, Chloe Nash, Anthony Giammona, and Danielle Caballero—who shared their heartfelt reflections about the cura personalis they have experienced here. Thanks as well to our student tour guides who showed off our stunning Charney Hall home, including Lizbeth Aguilar, Maria Carmona, Laurel McBride, Hana Murphy, Alexandra (Alex) Namson, and Safiya Siddiq.

Our prospective students emerged from our day together with a deep appreciation for our many distinctive strengths, including our beautiful Charney Hall location at the heart of innovation; our highly-ranked programs, centers, and clinics; our faculty of renowned scholars and dedicated educators; our loyal and engaged alumni; our tightly-knit community of care, and our ethic of loving kindness.

That ethic is deeply-rooted in our Jesuit mission and values, which we live out in innumerable ways. Over the past weekend, a group of 9 Santa Clara Law students participated in the 43rd Annual Silent Retreat for legal professionals at El Retiro Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, CA.

Facilitated by Fr. Tom Smolich, S.J., Rector of the Jesuit School of Theology-SCU, the retreatants, together in community, listened deeply and reflected on leadership and one's own personal journey toward discovering and living out the fullest realization of one's true potential. The guided exercises explored leadership themes across an arc, including fragility and betrayal, risk, healing, and transformation and acceptance. We are grateful to the Boscia Family—Chris and Kristen Boscia—for providing supportive scholarships for retreatants in honor of Dean Emeritus Gerald F. Uelman. At the conclusion of the retreat, the participants were graced with the recognition that they will never travel alone—they will be led, supported, guided, and lifted up by companions along the way. 

I know that our admitted students certainly felt that way on Saturday. As they soon realized, students who enter Santa Clara Law do not merely enter law school; they enter a life-long and loving relationship with our magnanimous community, which will bring them profound professional success, fulfillment, and well-being.

With warm regards and tremendous gratitude,

 

Michael J. Kaufman
Dean and Professor of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law