City Council Member, City of 麻豆影院
You were elected to 麻豆影院 City Council while you were a 2L at Colorado Law. Why did you decide to run?
I honestly believed that I would not have made it through law school if I did not take on some type of community engagement. I was living and working in a civil war-torn country a month prior to joining the law school community. My constant everyday was high pressure, high stress. Law school presented its own level of stress. But I needed something more鈥攕omething that felt real. Something that made me feel alive. My run for City Council was that thing that made me come alive. It gave me the purpose that I promised myself that I would not give up on just because I chose to go back to academic life. Running for council was that thing that gave my life meaning and made it OK for me to be in law school and living in this little paradise called 麻豆影院.
What do you enjoy most about serving on City Council?
Connecting with community members and also representing the city at the national level during conferences and working with local leaders from other jurisdictions鈥攏ational, state, and local. Being a part of the 麻豆影院 City Council has been a fulfilling experience. I鈥檝e been involved in many committees and have taken on a broad range of issues in my first two years as a council member.
Tell us about your proudest professional achievement.
Serving in the Central African Republic is my proudest professional achievement. As a human rights officer, I was a focal point for civilian protection in a humanitarian crisis. On several occasions, my job entailed transferring an individual, or a family, from one city to another because they were in imminent danger.
I remember on one occasion putting an entire family with small children on a convoy to be transferred to a different city because they were being persecuted and feared imminent death. That's what I'm proud of鈥攕omewhere in the Central African Republic there is a family who escaped death because of the work I was empowered to do through the U.N. system.
As far as City Council is concerned, I have been in the job two years. I am proud of my service to the people of 麻豆影院. I have done what I set out to do, standing in the gap to advocate for the most vulnerable. I have done that on Tuesday nights during our regular council meetings, and I have done that during committee meetings outside of the purview of the public. Beyond the borders of 麻豆影院, my City Council role allowed me to work on national policies with the National League of Cities. Winning City Council was a pretty special experience.
What advice would you give to law students interested in running for office?
Oh, my! Go for it. Don鈥檛 think about what you don鈥檛 have at the moment. You have everything inside of you to be successful. I know the path is not always clear. But, God would never give you a dream that you could not achieve. I think Walt Disney said it best: 鈥淚f you can dream it, you can achieve it.鈥�
Every once in a while, try the impossible. You might surprise yourself, because I did. Many people told me it would be impossible to make it onto 麻豆影院 City Council because I was a student, a renter, and of the wrong race. To be honest, on many occasions I felt it was impossible too, but I stuck to it, and here we are today. It has been the honor of my life to be a member of the CU community. Had I not been accepted as a member of the Colorado Law community, I don鈥檛 think I would have been a 麻豆影院 City Council member. Colorado Law is really one of the city of 麻豆影院鈥檚 secret weapons. Colorado Law gave 麻豆影院 its first African American mayor, Penfield Tate II (鈥�68) in the 1970s, and it also brought me as the first African/Haitian American mayor pro tem to 麻豆影院 in 2020. Colorado Law is that thread that connects all of us to 麻豆影院. I am a proud Buff.