As a senior at UD, Mary was torn between her passions for lyric poetry and for rhetoric and her lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer. While the study of the art of persuasion truly fascinated her, Mary was inescapably drawn to its practice. Just two weeks after completing her master's thesis on rhetoric in Shakespeare's Sonnets, Mary began law school at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia. Mary graduated from GMUSL in May 2013, and she now works as a law clerk for Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll on the Louisiana Supreme Court-the highest civil law court in the United States.
"It really did not take long for me to realize what an invaluable education I received at UD. I was using the skills I learned as an English major almost as soon as I started law school. UD's English program is unique in the country, perhaps the world, in that our English majors spend so much time with poetry, both lyric and epic. The technical training in lyric analysis that I first received in Junior Poet and further honed in later classes provided me with the best preparation for my future career. The myriad papers I wrote on lyric poetry habituated in me the ability to focus on the small details and to use those details to develop a persuasive big picture reading of a text. That is a skill I use every day when I'm reading and interpreting case law."
Mary's love affair with the great works she first experienced at UD did not end with her decision to practice law. Since leaving UD, Mary delivered a conference paper at the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) 2011 Annual General Meeting, and JASNA published that paper in its journal, Persuasions On-line, on Jane Austen's two hundred thirty-sixth birthday.
Mary lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Debra Ricard, MPM ’20, already had a master’s degree when she decided to enter the master’s program at UD. With a B.A. in architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s in architecture from the Catholic University of America, Ricard still did not feel she had found her vocation.
+ Read MoreNicknamed "Professor Bruce" and known for enchanting generations of students with his classroom stories, Professor of Management Bruce Evans is among the longest serving University of Dallas faculty members.
+ Read MoreSister Mary Brian Bole, BA ’67, was joyful. Her joy and enthusiasm permeated everything she did, from teaching and administrating at numerous Catholic schools (including Bishop Dunne, the Highlands School and Nolan Catholic in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as well as schools in Louisiana and Mississippi), to working in the Office of Undergraduate Admission at UD, to delivering a paper at a political science convention in Hungary just a few years ago.
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