A panel featuring two local mayors, a county supervisor and a keynote speech by a former Congressman discussed the importance of the legal system at a celebration of Law Day on May 2 at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB).
The theme of this year’s Law Day was “Voices of Democracy,” which according to the American Bar Association, “recognizes that in democracies, the people rule.”
CSUMB’s celebration of the day was designed to help young people explore the legal professions fundamental to the process of American democracy with a career fair, art and essay contest, and a number of distinguished government speakers.
According to Ana Muñoz, president of CSUMB’s Associated Students, Thursday’s event was about “getting [students] engaged in what it means to be civic activists … and to connect them with different organizations that they can get jobs with later on.”
More than 10 government agencies were at the event in hopes of educating attendees about the many career opportunities available to them. In addition, speakers from a number of local government agencies, such as Monterey Mayor Tyller Williamson, a CSUMB graduate, Soledad Mayor Anna Velazquez and County Supervisor Chris Lopez were in attendance for a panel.
According to the event’s keynote speaker, former Congressman Sam Farr, “Law Day is everyday … everything around you is about law.”
“Today it wasn’t a discussion about lawyers and judges … It was about the people who make the laws, how those laws are made, and why they can’t be made without a participatory democracy,” said Farr, who represented much of the Central Coast in Congress for 24 years.
“You have an incredible ability as an individual because this country and the politics in this country are really bottoms up.”
In addition to CSUMB students, students visiting from Rancho San Juan, Rancho Cielo, North Salinas, Alisal, Soledad and Everett Alvarez high schools, as well as Gavilan and Hartnell community colleges packed the University Center.
“One of the main things that we really try to do is encourage students to look at a legal career, mainly because a majority of the students that we have attending are high school students, and the majority of them come from farm working backgrounds,” said Wilfredo Martinez, project manager of Law Day.
“I myself am a first generation student … My mom worked in the fields. My father did as well. They came here as refugees after the civil war in El Salvador. I never saw people from my background in the legal profession,” said Martinez.
According to Martinez, who attended last year’s Law Day as a student, “one of the things that really helped me be able to envision myself becoming a legal professional in the future was Law Day.”
