McNEESE STATE UNIVERSITY
Zyria Holland is a senior humanities major, minoring in pre-law, at McNeese State University, and recently, she participated in an internship at Townsley Law Firm in Lake Charles.
“The most important thing I learned during this internship was patience. The tasks I was given were time-consuming, but they reinforced a valuable lesson of appreciating the journey of life,” explained Holland, from Shreveport.
Holland saw how complex cases are and how important it is to break down details to clients because they are trusting the law firm at a vulnerable point in time. This perspective pushed Holland to pay close attention because “every little detail holds value.”
“This experience inadvertently solidified how I should not be quick to judge others. People are fighting invisible battles and this was very evident in the cases I read,” Holland says. “Life will become challenging, but that is part of being human. Overcoming problems builds resilience, which is what really matters.”
During the internship, Holland did a significant amount of writing, but this didn’t bother her because classwork had helped prepare her for writing pages upon pages of case summaries.
“The internship showed me how much effort lawyers and paralegals put into multiple cases at once. During their busy workday, they also stop to answer calls and bring in clients to discuss the details of their situation,” explained Holland. “I was able to see a small amount of what to expect one day and how valuable communication is.”
Holland chose to attend McNeese because the university actively sought her out and scholarships were available. She knew she wanted to go into the field of law, while having a good understanding of history.
Holland plans to attend law school next year and said that “getting a glimpse of what her future will look like before fully committing has been extremely beneficial.”
