Caroline Aiello
Law Student
University of Michigan School of Law

While she hasn’t always known where things were leading, Caroline never shied away from the next adventure. “You need to keep learning,” she said to herself, while figuring out each next step. Learning and working were often combined, whether in the Czech Republic, Poland, Japan, Thailand, Laos or in Russia, Georgia and Armenia.

Several themes converged during Caroline’s journey from Milton and college back to law school: the drawing power of international diplomacy; the need for critical self-reflection that comes from immersion in the world’s cultures; and the discovery of unforeseen roles to play, particularly ways to be a resource for others. “I left Milton knowing only that whatever I did would need to be something that would help people,” she says. “Milton breeds that.”

Carly Wade’s course in Russian history was a trigger for Caroline. An aficionado of history, she loved Carly’s course. While she would ultimately study Russian during summers at Middlebury, as well as work in Moscow, she began with a year in the Czech Republic before college. With  the International Partnership for Service Learning, she worked in two state-run homes for mentally and physically disabled children and adults, and also took classes at Charles University. “I was impressed by meeting people close to my age who had fought for freedom,” she says. “It had been 10 years since the revolution, but the society was still opening up.”

At Penn, majoring in diplomatic history (“I wanted a solid history background before getting into international relations.”), she studied and worked in Poland. With other students, she helped small and medium-sized companies develop products that would be successful in the European market.

After college, no clearer about “the right thing” for her, Caroline “kept on learning and working” in Japan. She taught English to women and to preschoolers on the relatively industrial island of Shikoku, and then, in towns on the island’s north coast, taught men at ship-building plants who were interested in the English that could facilitate business dealings with their engineering colleagues in Malaysia.

“That [experience] showed me what life was like, for the housewife, for children, for the older and somewhat tired businessmen who worked far away from their families. I had to think hard about the United States—the way we perceive ourselves and the relationship of that perception to the reality on the ground. This introspective exercise became both ironic and relevant to my being in law school right now.”

After five months of “temping” in New York, testing ideas about publishing in the history world, a job came up with the New York Olympic Bid Committee. Caroline was an intern for international marketing, helping produce materials, but also preparing targeted marketing approaches to International Olympic Committee members. With failure of the bid also came closure about marketing as a profession: “It wasn’t right for me.”

Caroline says the key breakthrough came when she applied for a job posted in her college career newsletter. “[The position] was with the criminal division of the Department of Justice OPDAT—one of those acronyms that is chosen first and then backs into a title (Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training).”

“This is the office that channels Justice Department resources and personnel to help countries build their criminal justice systems. They help train judges and prosecutors; they provide technical help in response to requests for programs about witness protection, or management of prosecutorial offices, or money laundering or international terrorism. The ultimate goal is to develop relations that will help counteract international crimes, but essentially it helps build the legal systems.”

Her first year, Caroline worked in Thailand and Laos. She and her supervisor would build the teams that would present seminars targeted at an issue. Laotian officials, for instance, were interested in help setting up prosecutorial offices—comparable to the U.S. Attorney’s offices. Ironically, David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney from New Mexico who was fired in the 2007 sweep of U. S. Attorneys, was one of the team leaders. In another example, Nepalese officials wanted a program for trafficking victims, which Caroline’s team designed.

In her second year, the theatre of operations switched to Russia, Georgia and Armenia. In Russia, possessing child pornography is not illegal and Russia is one of the biggest international suppliers; one project was helping develop a crackdown on child pornography.

“I was one of the program analysts, and this job included everything I wanted. It involved travel and had an international focus. We worked in concert with the State Department; I became familiar with embassies and the various State Department desks. I worked with smart, friendly, supportive people—many my age—providing resources and assistance to people on things that mattered, locally and on a larger scale.

“This combination of elements refocused me on the idea of law school. With this degree, I see a career where I can use a skill set and apply resources to help people who are unrepresented, or have needs that stronger legal structures will help.

“Of course when you’re abroad and you talk about corruption they say, ‘Tell us about Gonzales.’ Just as I have had to scrutinize and question our social system and acknowledge realities, I have to acknowledge the same about our judicial system. It does break down. It isn’t perfect. Do we follow an imperfect system or reject it? Is it possible to create a legal system that is perfect? These are questions that stay with me, but I believe that strengthening the rule of law benefits countries.”

CDE

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