After completing her final exams in May, Jaimee Codd takes off for Houston for a clinical placement with The Children's Assessment Center. The Center, which provides a range of services for sexually abused children and their families, is staffed mostly by social workers, psychologists, and physicians. Jaimee will be the only legal intern at the Center and she will receive six credit hours toward her degree requirements for the summer experience.

Jaimee is scheduled to graduate next year and while she knows that she wants to work in the area of child advocacy and family law, location remains an uncertainty for her. She's using her clinical placement as an opportunity to explore the location question. "Originally, I was going to go to San Diego for my clinical. Then I briefly changed it to Miami. Finally, I decided on Texas because my parents now live there. All I know for sure is that I want to stay in the Sunbelt."

Last summer Jaimee participated in the Public Interest Law Summer Fellowship Program. Fellows take a three credit hour seminar and are placed with an organization that works with children. Tuition is waived for the course and Fellows receive a stipend for their field placement. Jaimee worked at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) where she worked with unaccompanied immigrant children to the U.S. She enjoyed the experience so much that she stayed with FIAC through the fall semester.

Jaimee majored in English and Spanish at Furman University. During college she volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Meals on Wheels. She also served as a student academic advisor and was a member of the English Honors Society and the Spanish Honor Society. After graduating from Furman in December of 2001, she studied abroad in Costa Rica.

At UM Law, Jaimee is a member of the Miami Scholar Public Interest Program, a staff editor for the Inter-American Law Review, and this semester she is a Dean's Fellow for Judge Wetherington's Torts class.

Dean's Fellows sit in on first-year classes and meet with 1Ls twice a week to review the material covered in class. "The intent of the Dean's Fellows is to teach study skills and strategies to 1Ls. Being a Dean's Fellow has been a rewarding experience. It's given me the opportunity to meet a lot of the 1Ls and to work with them on a one-on-one basis. I'm looking forward to being involved with the program again next year."