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Addressing isolation in legal education for Indigenous students
Completing a law degree is already challenging for many students and an intern at a BigLaw firm revealed that for Indigenous law students, the experience is often compounded by feelings of isolation, particularly for those studying online.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Protege Podcast, Yuin and Kamilaroi woman Lara Jash (pictured), a penultimate law student at Charles Sturt University and an intern at BigLaw firm McCabes, shed light on the feelings of isolation experienced by Indigenous law students, emphasising its potential to affect their academic success. She also revealed personal strategies she has used to overcome these feelings.
In the same episode, she discussed the impact of internship programs, like the one she is undertaking, on Indigenous students like herself.
Jash shared her experience of feeling isolated while pursuing her law degree, saying that the online learning environment exacerbated this sense of disconnection from her peers.
“The general experience, [as an online student], has been a bit isolating communicating with different people of the cohort, but also other Aboriginal people,” she said.
The challenge of isolation is particularly difficult, Jash said, for Indigenous students who have had to relocate from country and move away from their support systems to pursue their law degrees.
“I have found that a lot of them are actually off-Country, so then they moved away from home and there’s a little bit more isolation,” she said.
Due to the necessity of relocating away from their home towns, Jash said that Indigenous students may encounter increased difficulty and apprehension in establishing friendships and engaging socially with their peers.
“I think it would be quite hard for them to make friends and socialise and things like that, so it further creates that isolating environment which is sometimes sad to see,” she said.
To alleviate and overcome feelings of isolation, Jash underscored the significance of participating and forming connections with organisations that provide networking opportunities, saying how this will help ease the experience of being a law student.
“It can be a little bit isolating, but I think connecting with organisations that allow you to foster the important relationships you will need to cultivate throughout your university life is very important,” she said.
“But I think reaching out to people and just saying hello and passing on your contact details is really important.”
She said that the organisation in which she is actively involved has been increasingly helpful in providing her with a platform to connect with other law students and mentors.
“One is the [NSW] Bar Association – they have a program there where you can connect with mentors as well. So I’m connected with a justice of the Supreme Court and a public defender. They’re quite lovely people to just catch up and have a coffee with and brainstorm different things that are going through your mind,” she said.
Jash also detailed the importance of prioritising mental health as a significant aspect of addressing isolation. She shared her personal experience of how having a psychologist to engage with has been instrumental in combating feelings of isolation.
“I love having a psychologist and I’ve had one for about 10 years now, where initially it might have been where I’d had some obstacles in life preventing me from where I needed to go,” she said.
“But also throughout the years, the conversations got less about that and more about, you know, how can I set goals and how can I socialise with other people and cultivate important relationships.
“That’s been really important in my mental health. Same as exercise and things like that, just getting out there and pushing yourself.”
