Olivia Seibert, a third-year law student at Stetson University College of Law, is the newest extern to New College’s General Counsel David Fugett.
Seibert was born and raised in Elkins, West Virginia, but she spent many of her summers and holiday breaks with her grandparents in Orlando.
She attended West Virginia University (WVU), where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies, and a minor in Law and Legal Studies. She also focused a significant amount of her studies on Appalachian history and culture, as she was a teaching assistant for a class on women in Appalachia (and she presented an autoethnography at the annual Appalachian Studies Association conference in 2017).
During her time at WVU, Seibert thoroughly enjoyed her employment with the Student Union, where she worked as a building supervisor. In her final semester at WVU, she was a victim’s advocate extern with Monongalia County’s Victims Assistance Program, where she gained insight into the criminal legal system from a victim’s perspective. She also served as a peer advocate for WVU’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, through which she worked to educate students about their legal rights under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (this is where her interest in higher education law truly began).
Seibert was initially drawn to Stetson because the University offered a concentration in Social Justice Advocacy, but she has more recently found her home at the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy (where she learned that a career in higher education law could be both viable and fulfilling). She began volunteering at the Center during her second year of law school and she now serves as a research assistant to Professor Peter Lake, director of the Center and the nation’s leading higher education law scholar. Through this work, she has had the opportunity to research and learn about a number of legal issues colleges must navigate.
Seibert was also able to attend the Center’s Annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education, where she received a certification for Title IX investigations. Additionally, Seibert is a member of the Education Law Association at Stetson, and she is currently serving as secretary.
Seibert spent the summer after her first year of law school studying abroad in The Hague in the Netherlands, focusing on international human rights law (particularly the human right to education). During the summer following her second year of law school, she completed an internship (albeit remote due to COVID-19) with the general counsel at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. Notably, she had the opportunity to help rewrite the University’s Title IX policy in accordance with the new Title IX regulations in 2020.
As Seibert’s graduation from law school is swiftly approaching, she is excited to spend her last semester completing an externship with Fugett. She has faith that this experience will give her an in-depth showing of what it is like to work as a general counsel to a college or university, and thoroughly prepare her for what she hopes is her future career.