Highlights:
- UCF legal studies student Sophia Dufour is turning campus involvement into opportunities to advocate for students and help others succeed.
- She founded Legal Experience and Professional Success (LEAPS), connecting aspiring legal professionals with attorneys, judges, law schools and mentors.
- An internship with a family law firm led to a legal assistant position, giving Dufour hands-on experience as she works toward law school.
Sophia Dufour hit the ground running toward her goals the moment she arrived at UCF.
In just two years, she has founded a student organization for future legal professionals, sought opportunities to give back through UCF Student Government and the President’s Leadership Council, and turned an internship into her first professional job as a legal assistant. She has no plans to slow down.
Dufour, who’s pursuing a bachelor's degree in legal studies and certificates in litigation and advocacy and forensic science and the legal system, expects to graduate in May 2027 after just three years. A common thread runs through her experiences: a commitment to creating opportunities for herself and the students who follow.
That commitment inspired her to found Legal Experience and Professional Success (LEAPS) to help pre-law students find hands-on experiences. The organization connects students with attorneys, judges, law schools and professional mentors.
In its first year, LEAPS organized courthouse visits, law school tours, guest speaker events, admissions workshops and networking opportunities that many students might not otherwise have had. UCF Department of Legal Studies Lecturer Gina Fromang serves as the group’s faculty advisor.
LEAPS has grown to more than 30 members and continues to attract new students each semester. For Dufour, seeing others benefit from those offerings is one of her proudest accomplishments.
“When one of my members wants to network with an attorney we had at a meeting, I immediately send them their information,” Dufour says. “I hope they get an internship. I hope they get whatever opportunity they’re looking for. Giving those opportunities and seeing other people succeed is always super cool. It's so heartwarming to see other people enjoy something that I put work and time into.”
That same initiative has helped her advance her own professional goals.
Sophia Dufour (Photo by Natalie Fedor)One of her most valuable learning experiences began with an internship she learned about through the Department of Legal Studies. At My Orlando Lawyer, a family law firm where UCF Senior Lecturer Irene Pons practices, Dufour got hands-on experience that led the firm to create a legal assistant position to keep her on board.
“I didn’t want to leave; it was such a great experience,” she says. “There are just some things that you can't learn while you're in class. There are some things that you have to learn by just throwing yourself out there.”
Her determination to gain experience and stay involved in the community stems in part from her desire to stand out in the competitive law school admissions process.
“I’m very conscious that law school is way more competitive than when my boss and the attorneys that I interned with went to law school,” she says. “I know that if I don't get really involved and do all these things, then I may not get into law school, which is something that I've been working toward for half my life.”
But her drive also comes from a love of the work itself.
“I love all the activities I do,” Dufour says. “It's always amazing to be able to be tired because of something you love to do. I've gotten the most out of UCF that I could get in a college experience with the opportunities that I've had here between internships, jobs, clubs and being involved in leadership.”