“Valparaiso is investing in the future of my country.  You’re feeding a mind, and the mind you’re feeding has big dreams for my country, and I don’t think I could do what I want to do without a law degree.”

—Amelia Peterson

As a young child in Zimbabwe during the country’s war for independence, Amelia Peterson watched as her parents tirelessly served their battered country.  Her father spent most of the 1970s building Zimbabwe’s first road system. “He was trying to lay down the future in a country that was in the middle of a war, and it was almost impossible. He would build a road, and the next day it would be blown up with grenades. But when I look back on it, I look back with pride,” Amelia says.

Her mother, a nurse in a hospital near the border with Mozambique, often cared for the wounded freedom fighters. “One day, 100 soldiers would be brought in, and she would work for five days, have a break, and then another 100 soldiers would be brought in. Both my parents were in roles where they were constantly trying to heal wounds that were opened afresh each day.” Amelia intends to carry on her parents’ legacy of service.

Amelia arrived in the U.S. in 2002 and moved to Colorado where she met her husband, who is also from Zimbabwe. While in Colorado she earned her undergraduate degree in International Business from Johnson & Wales University and is an MBA candidate at Regis University. She also has earned a Graduate Certificate in Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. She has worked in both corporate and nonprofit environments managing workflow and projects, including a 500-volunteer project that generated $75,000 in revenue through her development of strategic partnerships with leaders in the Denver area.

Now Amelia is fully engaged in her academic pursuits with an eye on her ambitious goals for the future. She plans to use her law degree at the national level, formulating policy with non-governmental organizations to address human rights issues that she hopes will have international impact. Ultimately she will return to Africa – perhaps Zimbabwe – to address human rights challenges there.

Amelia praises the school’s writing program and strongly favors the two-semester writing requirement during the first year. “I had skills in other writing, but not legal writing. It’s exactly what I expected it to be – it’s a very intensive experience and it’s very challenging.  You go from writing a document for your client to working on a 30-page document a judge will read, and your writing may be the only chance your client has to win a case. You may never have a chance to stand and plead your case in front of a judge; your writing must say it all.”

Additionally, she says the individual interaction with her professors is well suited to her way of learning. “I have a very personal work style. Here, there’s an opportunity to get to know my professors, and I’m not just one face in a sea of 100. They have stepped outside of their role as teachers to be more of a mentor, and they know whether or not I understand the material. It’s a wonderful place, and it has been good for me.”

As she learns more about the law through her daily studies – particularly constitutional law – her dreams for the future continue to take shape. “My center always comes back to human rights and the human struggle,” she says. “I hope one day to go back and make policy changes in my country. Today, people there have no faith in the law, and no faith in the courts to redress their grievances. But it’s going to be okay. One day, it’s going to change.”