Gina Gerardi was one of approximately 100 law students who spent the summer in England with UM Law's London Summer Program. Students in the program take two, three-credit hour courses over an eight week semester. Gina took International Business Transactions, with UM's Professor Swan, and European Union Law, with Professor Moloney, a visiting professor from Ireland. "On both the personal and networking level, I was able to form new and stronger relationships with Miami law students as well as with students from other law schools."

The Summer Program included tours of the legal institutions in London and a three-day excursion to the English countryside. Gina also participated in a ten-day excursion that visited The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy. "For someone who had never been outside the United States before, eight consecutive weeks of traveling and studying law in Europe was an amazing experience that I probably will not have the time to do again, at least not in the near future."

The six credit hours that she earned over the summer allow her to take a lighter load this year and she will be able to concentrate more on each class and to be more involved outside the classroom. Among other things, Gina will be a senator for the Student Bar Association, secretary for the Entertainment and Sports Law Society, the publicity chair for Miami Law Women, and a member of the Moot Court Board.

Gina was able to sandwich the study abroad in between a summer legal internship with Coffey & Wright, a small law office located in Coconut Grove that is principally involved with commercial litigation. "I worked with a recording company from the Bahamas that was trying to set up an office in Miami. I analyzed their contracts and helped establish them up as a legal business entity in the United States. It was a great, practical experience in entertainment and media law, an area of interest for me."

Gina did her undergraduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her bachelor's degree is in speech communication with a minor in sociology. Gina's hometown is Lagrange, Illinois.