Retreat exposes UB students to democracy in Europe

During high school, Laura Mannara often questioned why her history courses rarely covered events outside of the United States.

So when Mannara, now a UB senior economics major aspiring to enter international politics, learned of the extension learning program, Lawyers as Agents of Social Change: Redefining Europe and Emerging Citizenship, she seized the opportunity to learn more about the world around her.

“My grandparents are European and I still feel tied to the continent. I grew up wanting to learn more,” says Mannara, who is also president of UB College Democrats. “It’s important to understand the issues going on in the world in which we live, and for a lot of us, the world in which we come from so we be more civic-minded on a global scale.”

Lawyers as Agents of Social Change is a week-long educational retreat held at the Chautauqua Institution that introduces UB students to the role lawyers play in issues involving social change and justice.

The program, sponsored by the UB Academies and the UB Law School, returned for its third year and ran from Aug. 8-15. The retreat coincided with the week of the Chautauqua Institution’s summer speaker series, which focused on European political relations.

In addition to receiving one course credit, students gained rare access to prominent lawyers, judges, politicians and professors to ask questions about the legal profession, law school and what it means to be an attorney.

Students got to meet New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, American media personality Phil Donahue and James Johnson, a chief prosecutor in the special tribunal for Sierra Leone on cases involving “blood” diamonds.

The program welcomed eight students from various UB academic and scholarship programs, including the Academies, Honors College, Educational Opportunity Program, Western New York Prosperity Fellows and Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program.

Throughout the week, the group reviewed the social context behind European historical events such as the Nuremberg Trails – the prosecution of Nazi Germany leadership – and examined current issues surrounding democracy in Europe, particularly between the Ukraine and Russia, and Greece and its creditors.

Students also visited the Robert H. Jackson Center and observed his legacy. Jackson was a local attorney who, although he never finished law school, rose to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice and served as chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials.

“We wanted to show students that someone from any background, even if they’re not interested in law or politics, can go on to make a powerful impact on the world,” says Bernadette Gargano, the program’s lead instructor and a lecturer in the UB Law School.

Lawyers as Agents of Social Change is one of UB’s extension learning experiences, which allows students to explore areas of interest beyond their major with distinguished faculty in settings outside of the classroom.