Welcome Back!
Director's Update
By Dan Worth

Greetings from Michigan where practically overnight the Ann Arbor campus has transformed from a quiet Midwestern town into a teeming hive of students. The start of the academic year always gets me thinking of the more than 15 million students returning to the over 4,000 campuses in the US, the close to 200,000 law students back at the more than 200 US law schools, and the vast potential these future leaders hold. First year law students will be swamped with reading assignments, second years will try to balance classes with a range of extracurricular activities and the impending summer job hunt, and third years will focus on finishing senior requirements, preparing for the bar, and making sure they have somewhere to go after graduation. Good luck to all of you!

As you enter or re-enter your busy law school routine, however, please take a moment to remember that there is more to law school than core requirements, the bar, and interviews. Many of you reading this are in law school because you are passionate about the environment and are looking for more extensive training in environmental law, policy, and advocacy. The bad news, as many of you may have already discovered, is that you will likely have far less access to environmental opportunities than you had hoped. The good news is that there are ways to supplement these often limited offerings and transform your law school experience. By participating in environmental student groups, national projects, moot court competitions, seminars, independent studies, etc. and connecting to professors and other professionals in the field you can use your law school experience to learn and do just about anything. This newsletter is filled with ways that NAELS and your school's environmental group can help!

In this edition of the newsletter, you will read an article by co-chair Dave Campbell, a 3L who through his two-year tenure as a NAELS student co-chair has gained a broad and deep education in environmental law and policy (not to mention fundraising, event planning, and community organizing) while developing an extensive personal network of environmental law and policy leaders. You will also read an article by Nichole Simmons, a law student who took on the monumental task of running last year's national environmental moot court competition at Pace.

NAELS can also help students engage in national, environmental, public interest projects. In this newsletter, you will read an article about Campus Climate Neutral (CCN), a campaign to mobilize law students in support of campus and global climate neutrality. You will also read an article by 3L Mike Murphy and Director of Programs at Pace, Lee Paddock, about how environmental student groups are working nationally to develop Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAPs) to give graduates the option of working in a public service or public interest job after graduation.

For you ELS leaders, NAELS can connect you to a network of like-minded groups. In this newsletter you will read an article about how Georgetown's Environmental Law Forum had Carl Pope of the Sierra Club speak to students and how several students launched efforts to make the Georgetown campus more environmentally friendly through wind-power purchases. You will also read an article about how Santa Clara's ELS co-sponsored a Public Interest and Social Justice Summer Fellowship.

The articles in this newsletter provide just a glimpse of the potential of law students, environmental law student groups, and collaborative national efforts. If your school's student group is a member of NAELS, check out our website to access resources and sign up for a project. If your school's student group is not a member of NAELS, please click here to join our growing national network. If your school doesn't have an environmental law student group, click here to see how you can work with NAELS to help start one.

So, again, welcome back. Time to get busy!

Dan Worth
NAELS Executive Director