REP-PP Spring 2017 Blog: Selfless Service
Blogger: Stuart Campbell
Law School Year: 3L
Placement: Texas Health Services Authority, Austin, Texas
Being an Aggie means a lot more than cheering for our football team, saying “howdy,” or wearing an abnormally large graduation ring – being an Aggie means that through our education, we strive to selflessly serve our fellow Aggies and our fellow Texans. Whether this means serving others through our roles as attorneys or in our roles as community leaders, Aggie lawyers have an intrinsic duty to put the needs of the others before our own. As such, Aggie lawyers are uniquely qualified to participate in the creation of public policy, as no other field of law offers the opportunity for an Aggie lawyer to selflessly serve the largest amount of people possible. The desire to serve my community and develop good policy is the reason why I am becoming an attorney, and it is the reason why I chose to attend Texas A&M University School of Law.
Through my REP-PP experiences thus far, I have discovered that the attorneys that truly make a substantial change to public policy are nearly always driven by a deep-seated desire to serve. The attorneys at the Texas Health Services Authority are driven by a passion to selflessly serve the Texas healthcare community by providing the essential service of connecting healthcare providers across the state. Under their supervision and guidance, I have come to know that selfless service is not just an Aggie Core Value; selfless service is also a prerequisite for any attorney who pursues a career in public policy.
I first came to law school as a young, naive political science student with grandiose visions of how an Aggie lawyer could effectuate change that would not only reflect positively on Texas A&M University, but also benefit Texans as a whole. Now that I am nearing the end of my law school career and participating in the REP-PP, though I have still retained my relative youth and naivety, I have realized that selfless service is an essential, yet fleeting concept in many aspects of public policy. As a soon-to-be Aggie lawyer, I will do my damnedest to change the latter.