Balance, Flexibility and Faith are Key for Single Mom, Agency Director and Law Student Cathy Raidna “Balance,” “flexibility” and “faith” aptly describe student Cathy Raidna’s strategy in life. While running an adoption agency and, as a single mother, raising two elementary-age children, Raidna is tackling law school full time. A native of Chicago, Raidna has moved numerous times during her lifetime—about 17—ending up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She describes those moves philosophically, crediting them for her ability to understand grief and loss and to work with different types of people. Raidna started her college career in business although she had wanted secretly to become a lawyer since childhood. True to her multitasking nature, she also was interested in fundraising for non-profit organizations and in helping people on a personal level. All of those interests converged when she discovered that her curriculum was leading her to social work. She subsequently completed a bachelor’s degree in family and individual development at Northern Illinois University and a master’s in community services at Michigan State University. Raidna says it was divine intervention when, out of the blue, she was offered a position at an adoption agency where she hadn’t even applied. (To this day, she does not know who referred her.) She accepted the job on the spot. “Something about the losses adoptees feel, if not dealt with properly, struck me,” she says. With the help of a few associates, Raidna since has started a new agency, Adoptions of the Heart, Inc., in Grand Rapids, where she still lives. Cathy Raidna A sudden inspiration prompted Raidna to apply at MSU-DCL. “One day, when I was walking on campus, I saw the building under construction, and I knew I would go there,” she explains. Her inspiration: adoptive families, unhappy with the children they had adopted, were trading across the country with families they had met on the Internet. “It took months to find an attorney who would help,” Raidna says. “After that, I decided to apply to law school so I could take action on behalf of children when the action was needed, not months later.” Raidna entered MSU-DCL part time in 2000. With the help of a $10,000 scholarship she won in a Westlaw drawing—an event she calls “definitely a gift of grace”—she converted to full time this fall. Raidna describes her law school experience as “phenomenal,” and applauds the college’s faculty and administration for their support and for the practical nature of her studies. “I can apply every class I’ve taken to the duties of running an agency,” she says. Raidna is grateful for her multifaceted life and the advantages she has. She enjoys her children—7-year-old Emily and 8-year-old Ben—whom she describes as “really cool,” and relies on her strong faith that helps her decide where she needs to place her attention. She hopes to finish law school in 2004, after which she’ll continue to assist in adoptions—as an attorney. On the horizon for Raidna and her associates are alternative ways of operating a practice. “The ultimate dream,” she says, “is a huge, safe, warm home that accommodates the agency/firm, offers relaxation activities to clients, provides an inviting neighborhood gathering place, and offers shelter to displaced young adults in need of a stable, caring environment.” Eric Ensminger Eric Ensminger Turns Childhood Dream into Reality Eric Ensminger has “always” wanted to be a lawyer. Ensminger became interested in the law while he was growing up in the South. “I thought that the law was misunderstood by many lay people,” he says, “and I wanted to pursue higher education and become part of an elitist group of the most highly educated people in the world.” Interested in politics and the political system, Ensminger completed an undergraduate degree in political science and criminal justice at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. At the same time, he worked full time, first in capital management at a bank and then in a county drug court. MSU-DCL caught Ensminger’s attention while he was living, working and going to school in North Carolina. “The biggest draw was the affiliation with MSU and the resources of a Big Ten school,” he says. “MSU has a great combination of the new and the old, and you can’t beat some of the features that the Law College Building offers.” At MSU-DCL, Ensminger has put his interests to work on the Moot Court and Advocacy Board, where he managed this year’s National Trial Advocacy Competition, and as editor of the Journal of Medicine and Law. As research assistant to Professor Mae Kuykendall, he is helping to revise the Michigan Nonprofit Corporations Act, to write a Law Review article on corporations and, with Professor Kuykendall and MSU-DCL President Clifton Haley, to compose an electronic casebook on mergers and acquisitions. A Tax Concentration student, Ensminger also is a teaching assistant in the Basic Income Tax class taught by Professor Amy Christian. Ensminger has used his summer breaks to gain additional experience. He spent the summer of 2001 in a small insurance defense firm, and this past summer, he worked at the U.S. attorney’s office in Orlando, Florida, where he drafted the summary judgment motion in the government’s $6 million case against F. Lee Bailey. Now in his last year of law school, Ensminger is looking forward to returning south with his wife Jamie, to taking the Florida bar exam, completing an LLM in taxation and practicing in Florida.