Weigand Scholar Joan Schneider (Washburn ’10) was recently mobilized to active duty in the Army at Fort Stewart, GA for a year. She’s working as a paralegal for the Special Victims Prosecutor to help support sex crime court martials.
Schneider says, “Kansas and Georgia are worlds apart. Sometimes the humidity is so high you feel like you are living in a swamp. Before I came here I had nothing but contempt for the drivers on the road– now I know that Georgia drivers are even worse than the ones in Kansas. The food is totally different too. Seafood is so much fresher and cheaper than in Kansas. Conversely, beef is much more expensive and it is hard to get good quality cuts. I would say at least $1 a lb in the price of seafood in Kansas has to be just shipping, because seafood is at least that much cheaper here across the board.
What I love about my new job is that I am making a difference in a very delicate area of criminal law. I work with the Special Victims unit which means we prosecute sexual crimes such as rape and sexual assault. We also deal with serious cases of child abuse such as shaken babies.
I would say the aspect of my legal education that most prepared me for this job is criminal procedure. Because I am a paralegal I help assemble evidence, draft pre-trial documents, that sort of thing. MAJ Grieser is the one in the court room. Heads up for those interested in practicing military law, there are some differences and the source of law is the MCM– the Manual for Courts-Martial, which is available online in pdf format through the Army Publishing Directorate.
I can’t wait to get back to Kansas, I miss everything about it. Georgia is just an extended vacation, there is no way I would want to live here.”