In the summer of 2003, Dani Audette drove the length of Interstate 95 from her hometown of Houlton, Maine, located on the Canadian border, to Miami, Florida to start law school at UM. As she enters her final year, she hopes to stay in South Florida after graduating next spring and with a position at White & Case in downtown Miami lined up for this summer, she may get her wish.

When Dani decided to pursue a law degree, she used it as an opportunity to leave New England and try living somewhere else on her own for awhile. "I have to confess that Miami was not even on my radar until I received a recruiting letter. It prompted me to apply and I was amazed by how quickly I received my acceptance letter. Miami was quicker than any other school and whenever I contacted the Admissions Office, they always gave me the impression that they really wanted me as their student and as a member of their alumni one day."

Dani graduated from Holy Cross in 2000 and worked as a technical writer for a year and as a paralegal for two years before applying to law school. As a psychology student in college, Dani worked for two years in the psychopharmacology laboratory, co-authored an article with one of her professors in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, and during her senior year she attended a couple of neuroscience conferences. She was also active in the dance ensemble at Holy Cross.

At UM, Dani is on the University of Miami Law Review, a Dean's fellow for Elements and Criminal Procedure, a student mentor for entering students, and last summer she clerked with Nicklaus & Associates in Coral Gables. She is also a tax preparer for the law school's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA). "VITA was the first extra-curricular activity I became involved in at UM. During the first year, everyone is so focused and I found that getting involved with other students outside the classroom was a great way to relieve some of the stress of being a 1L." In her free time Dani takes advantage of the weather by running daily and she practicing kickboxing to balance out her life as a law student.