Zoe Polk
Newport News, Virginia
2L
Zoe Polk was looking for a law school with
a conscience—and she found it at St. John’s
Zoe Polk has big plans. She attended Georgetown University in
Washington DC as an undergraduate, and after graduating spent two
years working for a non-governmental organization in the nation’s
capital. Law school was always in her future, and she was drawn to
St. John’s because of its location in New York, and its reputation
as a top law school.
Zoe’s interests are in international law and advocacy, and she’d
always dreamed of working for a prestigious organization such as
the United Nations. In the fall of 2006, shortly after beginning
her second year at St. John’s, she got her wish. She started an
internship at the United Nations through St. John’s externship
program, working in an office dedicated to dealing with the harsh
realities facing children who are caught in the middle of armed
conflict.
After her internship was over, Zoe was offered a consultancy to
continue researching and writing about the topic. From there, she
went to South Africa.
“I have an interest in international law, and an interest in
comparative law, and I knew South Africa would be a great place
because its democracy is only 10 years old, there are a lot of
interesting issues to look at comparatively with the United States
democracy, but also in terms of conflict resolution. South Africa
is only 10 years removed from apartheid. I just thought it would be
very interesting for me as a law student to get a sense of how they
have progressed.”
Zoe plans to continue her work in the areas of advocacy, and
found the perfect outlet at St. John’s—the Child Advocacy
Clinic.
“I’d like to do advocacy work for youth. At the United Nations
I’ve been focusing on refugee children and how they’re impacted by
war. It’s work that I very much believe in. I’d like to mainstream
their cause. I’d also like to do a Fulbright, looking more
seriously at international law.”
The opportunity to join and be active in student organizations
is something she’ll never forget about her time at St. John’s.
“One of the great things about St. John’s is the organizations
we have here, and the way those organizations integrate their
different missions. I do a lot of work with the Black Law Student
Association, as well as Amnesty International and the Public
Interest Committee. We organized a trip to New Orleans last year
for some law students to go down and volunteer their legal
knowledge and experience. I was very happy that St. John’s provided
funding for students to do that.”
To learn more about the opportunities at St. John's from our
Students, Alumni and Faculty, visit our
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