Elyse Rosenblum
Grads of Life
Santa Fe, NM USA
"The trick is to be confident in yourself, be open to continue to learn and grow, and be flexible about the opportunities that present themselves."
Career Roadmap
Elyse's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Education, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Put effort into building your interpersonal, critical thinking, and communication skills while in college. You'll need those skills to navigate the world successfully. As far as majors go, my law degree has given me a lot of opportunities and extra knowledge, but it's not necessary to go to law school to make positive change in the world.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
History, General
Williams College
Doctorate
Law
The University of Texas School of Law
Life & Career Milestones
I've taken a lot of twists and turns
1.
I grew up in a family that put education as the top priority—it was expected that I’d go to college and that I’d use my education to make the world better.
2.
I earned my bachelor’s degree from Williams College after transferring from the University of Texas—having grown up in Texas, I really wanted to go out-of-state for college.
3.
After undergrad, I took a break from school and worked in the nonprofit sector, focusing on women’s rights in Washington D.C.
4.
I decided to go to law school back home in Texas because I saw it as an opportunity to gain more skills and knowledge to help drive equality for women.
5.
After law school, I worked for a couple of judges before moving on to a big law firm in Washington D.C., but I hated it—I felt like I was on the wrong side of every issue I was working on.
6.
I moved on to work for a very small female-owned consulting firm that worked on public policy issues, which was a better fit and showed me there are other ways to make change outside of the law.
7.
Since then, the main consistent in my career has been the drive to create change for more economic equality and opportunity for people who are traditionally overlooked.
8.
For the last decade or so, my focus has been on helping “opportunity youth”—16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school nor in jobs with a career path opportunity.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You can't do it.
How I responded:
If anyone tells me I can't do something, I immediately take it as a challenge and work hard to prove them wrong.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
It was a huge expectation in my family that I would go to college and use my education to do something to make the world better. It was never just an option or even a conversation in my family.
I wanted to be a doctor but was discouraged by the difficulty of O-chem. I was taking history at the same time and loved it, so I took that path instead. It worked out because I gained valuable critical thinking skills that have helped a lot.
After law school, I worked at a big law firm but hated it. I felt like I was always on the wrong side of every issue I was working on. When I moved onto a smaller consulting firm, I saw that there are other ways to create change outside of law.