Juris Doctor, University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law ’29—expected
Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania ’25; Concentration in Organizational Studies
“Getting my bachelor’s degree is something I’ve been working on since I graduated high school,” reflects Erica Adhikary (BAAS ’25). “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be going to law school.” Yet Erica, a mother of two who lives in York, PA, and travels frequently to take her youngest child for hospital treatments, is starting a juris doctorate program in the fall after graduating from college. The hybrid law program, which combines online coursework with occasional in-person intensive training, will allow Erica to balance coursework with the needs of her family—and continue the remote learning experience that allowed her to thrive in the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) program.
The obstacles Erica faced in returning to school were considerable. Although she had completed some college when her first child was born, her family responsibilities put her academic dreams on hold for a while. Then, when he was only one year old, her youngest became ill with bronchiolitis obliterans, a terminal disease. Erica and her young son are often on the move, visiting specialists and transplant teams in hospitals from Philadelphia to Cincinnati.
But when Erica decided she wanted to go back to school—around the same time that she committed herself to sobriety—she was ready to go all in. She started an online program at another private university, but although her previous credits still applied, she fretted that it would take five years to complete her remaining degree requirements at a part time pace. The Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program offers 8-week accelerated courses, which meant that Erica could enroll full time. “It wasn't until I got into this program that I had a clear plan to obtain my bachelor's degree in two years,” she recalls, “even with the amount of hospital visits that we had, the amount of doctor’s visits, and just life going on in general.”
In fact, Erica’s son was admitted to the hospital the day before her first course would start. Erica reached out to the BAAS team, who advised her to drop one of her first two classes and keep her instructors in the loop. “I found that open communication was key,” says Erica. “My professors were very gracious, and if I needed an extension or help, I was able to communicate that with them. But a lot of the time, I was able to work ahead—because I knew that something could happen at any time. I really loved the fact that I could do the classes at any time—in the car, sitting in the hospital, or at night while my kids and husband are asleep.” During the days that her son was treated at the children’s hospital next to Penn’s campus, Erica was also able to work at the University library, surrounded by books and other students at work. “I was just floored by the library,” she recalls. “It was really mind-blowing to be an online student but still able to go on campus and enjoy some of the same things as people who take in-person classes.”
Although Erica didn’t expect to connect with her online classmates—having not had that experience at other colleges—she found that there were many ways to get to know her peers over Slack, during Zoom sessions, or through discussion posts. In one class, some informal Slack banter sparked an enduring friendship with a classmate across the state. “He’s my best friend, still to this day. I love his wife, my husband is friends with him, my family is friends with him. At graduation, we were tied to the hip,” she laughs. Her new best friend wasn’t the only familiar face at the graduation ceremony in Philadelphia; she found that her classmates recognized her from in-class comments and writing assignments, and she too was able to put faces to the names she had gotten to know. “One of the wonderful things is that we could be in different programs, but we would circle around to take the same classes because a lot of the programs overlapped with each other,” says Erica. “When we finally all got together, we weren’t strangers. We were in the trenches together for two years.”
In the proverbial trenches, Erica observes, the coursework was challenging but achievable. “The first thing I noticed about the classes is that the caliber was way higher. The quality of work that was expected—and the quality of work that was given—was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” But class after class, Erica was able to meet the challenge. “I had a lack of confidence, because I've tried to go back to school so many times,” she muses. “I never thought I would graduate with 4.0 from Penn. But the more classes I took, the more I believed in myself, because I received nothing lower than an A. And then I realized—this is possible.”
Erica started out by taking ORGC 1600: Introduction to Team Culture, a course that set her on a path toward her degree concentration in Organizational Studies. “We learned how organizations work, what makes a team work, and understanding your coworkers—almost like a psychology of business. It was something that I haven't really seen offered at other schools,” she explains. As an Organizational Studies student, Erica completed certificates in Organizational Culture and Collaboration, Professional Writing, and Applied Positive Psychology—a subject that interested her enough that she considered pursuing a master’s degree in the subject. “I took as many positive psychology courses and organizational culture courses as I could,” she says. “It was fascinating to take both of those classes at the same time and chew on them together. It really did overlap, in the sense that you’re learning how individuals work with one another within an organization, and then you add the positive psychology focus on building up your strengths and how that can apply to your organization.” (Erica’s top two strengths, according to the VIA Character Strengths Survey, are bravery and love of learning.)
Ultimately, Erica’s current professional path was decided by a series of opportunities that emerged during her college experience. “It’s a spider web—it all connects, and it all goes back to the program,” she notes. Erica cultivated a habit of volunteering throughout her educational journey—keeping busy, she says, helps support her sobriety journey. At first, she interned with Heal PA, a coalition that advocates for trauma-informed care; she also volunteered as a certified sexual assault counselor. Later, she used her student access to Handshake and found an internship opening at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “I fell in love with public interest law,” she says of this role. “My son is disabled, and I want to create a world where he and other people do not experience barriers due to disability. I would love to be an attorney for EEOC, or one of their judges one day. That's my dream job.”
As Erica discovered her passion for public interest law, she was taking PROW 4010: Composing a Professional Identity, a course that helps students build a professional profile from resume to LinkedIn presence. One of the assignments typically asks students to complete the requirements for a job listing related to their interests; however, her instructor encouraged Erica to instead prepare a law school application. “I was really excited that my professional profile was tailored to me—and for looking at law schools, not for jobs,” she says. “I felt that I had a strong team that I could go to in order to prepare for law school.”
Erica was not able to take the LSAT in time for that year’s application cycle, due to circumstances that arose in her son’s care. She took the GRE instead, but felt unsatisfied with her score. Nevertheless, her law school application was strong enough to garner several scholarship offers from competitive schools nationwide. “Testing alone does not indicate what kind of student a person's going to be,” she muses. “I'm really thankful that I had the grades, strong letters of recommendation, and the professional profile that I built in class.” Erica opted for a partial scholarship at the University of New Hampshire, whose low-residency law program was both more flexible and more familiar than an in-person program. To acquaint herself with the norms of legal writing, she completed a 6-week certificate program offered by Harvard; “It’s a whole new language, very different than what we would do in a regular classroom,” she explains.
At graduation, Erica received the Linda Bowen Santoro Award, presented to a graduating LPS student who displayed unusual motivation and dedication in the pursuit of their undergraduate degree. “The award solidified so many different things for me,” she says. Sometimes, she admits, law school still feels like an impossible dream. “Then I remind myself: Erica, you felt the same thing when you started at Penn, and look how well you did. If you keep with that drive—that unusual amount of dedication—then you can do anything.”
To other returning college students, Erica advises: “Run your own race. Go at your own speed. So often we think that if we're not doing 100%—if we're just doing 90%—then it's a failure. So I would say to anybody, including a parent: One class at a time, one semester at a time,” she concludes. “Just take it one day at a time.”
