December 2020 LAW SCHOOL FEATURE: Meet Antionna!
Antionna Fuller, 2L, Villanova Law
Our featured law school student for the month of December is Antionna Fuller, a 2L at Villanova Law School! During her interview, Antionna discusses the challenging, yet important position she is in as a first-generation student, breaking generational cycles of poverty, Imposter Syndrome, overcoming the LSAT, and why she has decided to pursue a public-interest based career with her JD. Antionna is not only an amazingly gifted and intelligent student, but also a remarkably kind and genuine person. We are so excited to have her as our December feature!
Why did you decide to pursue your JD?
That’s funny! All my life, I wanted to be a Psychologist. I always had a desire to help children and families become better than the circumstances around them. I was fourteen years old when I first became an auntie. Then, again at sixteen, seventeen, and at nineteen years old. These experiences not only allowed me to become an expert at changing diapers and warming bottles, but has provided me with greater insight as to their immediate needs. Like me, my nieces were born to teenage mothers, who were also born to teenage mothers who never made it to college. We both grew up in a poverty-stricken community with narrow opportunities to succeed. This inspired me to close achievement, justice and educational gaps by building equity among us all, which in turn, led to my interest in law. I hope to replace strict rule and doctrine, with humanity. I aspire to bring new perspectives, counter to traditional views and to encourage key players to not only think, but to feel.
Tell us a little bit about your journey to law school. What were some of your challenges throughout this process, including taking the LSAT?
My journey to law school was an emotional rollercoaster! I began my journey the Spring semester of my junior year in college. I wanted to take an LSAT prep course but could not afford to do so. I self-studied while working two jobs, staying committed to leadership positions on campus, and maintaining my academics. I took my LSAT that September and did not do well, scoring well below average. I was devastated. I knew there were pros to taking a gap year, but I personally did not want to. I continued on my journey.
I was fortunate enough to obtain an LSAT fee waiver and the LSAT prep company I wanted to take originally had a program for those with the LSAT fee waiver. The program allowed the course price to reduce from $1,500 to $600. I took a step out on faith and purchased it. A couple of days later, two people invested in me and I received my $600 back. A couple days later, I won a free LSAT course from a raffle I had entered. I decided to pay it forward and give it to a friend who was also planning to take the LSAT.
When I took the LSAT the second time, I increased four points (but it was still below average.) I was confused, hurt, and felt defeated. I decided to surrender my journey to God. I only wanted what He wanted for me. Update: I just completed my first semester of 2L year.
How did you find your inspiration for your personal statement?
Being a first-generation student is something I am most proud of. Each generation of my family has struggled in a single-parent household, mostly in low-income, rural communities, with limited resources, and failing school systems. I know what it is like to want help and have no idea where help will come from. My experiences have taught me how to nurture, comfort, and care about the needs of others. It has allowed me to have compassion for those who are broken and tired. It has given me the desire to give back and break cycles of dysfunction. I thought about my life experiences and what brought me to the point at which I was writing. It all boiled down to my why: my nieces. I know who I am setting the standard for and who I have to give back to. What is your why?
How do you plan on using your JD? Why did you decide not to go into the corporate law space?
I hope to have a successful public interest career doing work in poverty law. After practicing for a few years, I hope to combine my passions for law, service, and entrepreneurship by founding a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping low-income families rewrite their generational legacies through child support reform efforts. I believe the nation’s current child support system places less focus on the child, and instead, is another hidden system designed to keep Black families in poverty.
This is why I never questioned the experiences assigned to me. Black people and people of color need those who understand their experience, to fight for them and to suggest alternatives that will advance their current conditions. My hope is to give them hope because I have seen it and been there, too.
I have always been split between seeing a salary my family has never seen and helping those I saw needed it the most growing up. I decided to follow my heart. In the words of Elaine Jones, the first woman to be appointed president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, “I have a rule: Never do anything solely for the money,” she said. “Money can be a factor, but when you make it the only factor, that’s trouble.”
How has your experience been as a black woman at a predominately white law school?
It is very challenging. It is difficult feeling you have to be the voice for your entire community. It’s hard having to work harder, and do more, to be taken more seriously. However, my experience has many components. At my school specifically, I bring regional diversity, racial diversity, and socioeconomic diversity. I moved ten hours away from home, by myself, in my car. Sometimes I am afraid of talking in class because of how I may sound. (I am still improving and developing my speech and vocabulary.) Further, I am often worried about more than passing classes and gaining prestigious positions; I, personally, am always thinking about how I will pay my loans and whether I will ever break from generational poverty. It’s a lot of pressure being a black woman, but also a black woman as a triple-first generation student.
Looking on your journey to law school, what’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself?
EMBRACE! You are just as unique, just as intelligent, just as capable, as anyone around you! You are not the only one that does not understand the material. Everyone struggles, some are just better at pretending! There’s someone out there that needs what only you can offer. They need someone with your experiences, your passion, and your voice. You can’t give up!
How do you stay grounded in law school? What do you do to maintain your peace during an unprecedented year as 2020?
My faith and relationship with God continue to keep me grounded. It is through Him that I find my identity, peace, joy, and comfort. I learned how to silence the lies of the Imposter Syndrome by staying committed to my daily time with him. There is nothing I can’t do, or accomplish, with Him by my side.