It’s safe to say Chad Hardy is a big man on the UQ Law School campus.

That’s because the OzTREKK student has made many efforts to get involved with his program and plans to accomplish many things to help new and veteran students be the best they can be while completing their law degree at the UQ Law School.

Beginning his second year of the UQ Law School graduate-entry Bachelor of Laws program, Chad has become quite comfortable in his surroundings. He arrived in Brisbane last February with his fiancée, who is completing her degree at the UQ Medical School. After experiencing the harsh floods from last year, Chad says he was excited to begin his studies and start his career pathway.

“Once uni began, I experienced the same camaraderie that I would have expected being in my home city with the friends I grew up with,” he says, adding that getting integrated early on really helped. Not only did he join the UQ Law School Society’s running club, he attended social groups’ welcome barbecues so that he’d get the chance to meet new people. “All of the people I met carried the same attitude; they were here for University and wanted to make the most out of it.”

As he launched into his first semester on campus, Chad said he treated it like a full-time job and making friends with veteran law school students helped him navigate well through school. He also enjoyed all his classes.

“I found that every person enjoyed a particular class for a particular reason,” he explains. “Usually it was because of the professors and teaching staff. The university has done a great job of hiring professors that aren’t just knowledgeable in their field, or an esteemed academic, but they are also interesting people who bring different assets to each lecture. Whether it’s an obvious attempt with a flat joke at trying to be funny or using an accent or sound bites for effect, the lecturers have really made my first year enjoyable.”

Last year Chad was elected as the UQ Law School Society’s 2012 Postgraduate and International Liaison Officer. It’s a job he’s since embraced and has plans to help current and future UQ Law School students.

“As an LLB International Postgraduate student, I had always wondered where I stood and what options were open to me,” he says. “My predecessor has done a wonderful job in the year before and I look forward to keeping up the great work he has done.”

Here are a handful of Chad’s plans for the year:

• Specializing the Buddy program so that students are paired up with a senior buddy who entered through the same path
• Bring in an LLM seminar by UQ to appeal to the academic in all Law students as a possible future path and also provide a forum for education feedback on and from the UQ Law School LLM program
• Crafting a publication of tales from those who have gone on exchange to other countries
• Add a section to Legal Direction publication in order to show the International career path of a law student, should they wish to go to Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Malaysia, or one of a number of countries following graduation.

Chad says he looks forward to a busy year ahead!

He offers a piece of advice to Canadians considering a law degree abroad.

“The advice that I would give to any students considering a Law degree at UQ or anywhere is [that] you make your own path in life and can get a law degree anywhere in the world,” he says. “If you go somewhere, like, oh, I don’t know, Australia, who knows what kind of adventure you will go on in your life. Be smart, look at the advantages and disadvantages but don’t forget that you just might like it enough to stay. Australia is pretty awesome.”

We wish Chad all the best in his second year!

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