1 (888) 768 6861

Request Info
Apply Now
A woman reviews legal documents at a desk with a wooden gavel and laptop.

A Passion for Law, Finally Pursued: One Student’s Journey Through Bryan University’s Paralegal Program 

Emily Bradshaw

Published: | Last Updated:

# ,

Some people spend years knowing exactly what they want to do. The trick is finding the right moment and path to actually do it. 

For Bryan University’s Christina Rohrbach, that moment finally arrived. She’s earned her Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies, served as President of the Paralegal Club, maintained a 4.0 GPA, and is building toward the freelance paralegal career she’s had in mind since high school.  

Always Meant for Law

Christina’s interest and passion in law goes back further than college and further than her working years. It goes back to high school where she realized she had a fascination with rules, history and the documents that shaped them.  

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do since high school. I’ve always had a fascination with history and the Constitution and all of that, and so law has always been a passion.” 

Right now, she works for a nonprofit in customer service and data entry. She is building a freelance paralegal practice, Pinkline Legal Services, on the side where she can do the work she’s always been drawn to on her own terms.  

The Decision to Go Back to School

The timing had to be right, and for a long time it wasn’t. But a combination of professional frustration and a shift in her home life opened the window. 

“I was tired of the dead-end jobs that I had. It was just the perfect time, and my kids are all teenagers, so they’re not as dependent. So, I was like, okay, well, you guys can do homework while I’m doing homework!” 

No Tech Anxiety Here

She’ll tell you she’s tech-savvy, so the idea of learning online didn’t give her pause. Canvas did have a bit of a learning curve at first, but mastering it came with an unexpected bonus. 

“My children also use Canvas for their school, so in the beginning, that was a little bit of a learning curve trying to figure out how it works. But once I had it figured out, I was like, oh, y’all have no more excuses because I know how to look at all your assignments now. And they were like, oh!”  

Making It Fit: Routines, Flexibility, and Parking Lots

Her life doesn’t have a lot of empty space in it. Full-time job, teenagers in extracurriculars that have them traveling for competitions, all the usual moving pieces of a busy household. Making school work meant making a system. 

“Just really working with my schedule and designating times on certain days to where I could sit down and do homework, that was the big thing. Just getting a routine. But once we all had a routine, it was no big deal.” 

The program’s flexibility also meant she wasn’t locked into a desk to get things done. Mobile access opened up pockets of time she wouldn’t have had otherwise. 

“You can do quick assignments or do your YellowDig points, or whatever, if you’re sitting in the parking lot waiting on band rehearsal to be done.”  

A Program Built for Real-World Results

What sets BU’s Paralegal & Legal Studies program apart, in her view, is that it never lets you forget why you’re there. The curriculum is built around real legal work like case law, memorandums, billing software, and e-discovery. She frames the associate’s degree in terms of what it actually prepares you to do. 

“The paralegal program is so amazing, because if you graduate with the associate’s degree, that gives you two years of on-the-job training because of how hands-on the curriculum is designed. I’ve been working on case laws this entire time, and memorandums, and inter-office memos. One class was really heavily involved with billing software. The last two classes in this associate program have been dealing with e-discovery, and that’s a major thing in law offices right now.” 

That last point matters to her professionally because e-discovery is an area where a lot of smaller, more established firms are still catching up. That means students trained in it walk in with a built-in advantage. 

“Several of the smaller firms with older lawyers don’t really know about e-discovery, so by being trained in it, that actually makes me more marketable. And it’s just been absolutely fantastic working on these fake cases that could be in real life.”  

The Experience: Fantastic Across the Board

She doesn’t hedge when you ask her how the program has been. 

“It has been absolutely fantastic. Everybody has just been completely amazing, I haven’t had any bad experiences at all.” 

The instructors are a big part of that. Responsive isn’t just a word she uses politely, she means it. She spent three days working on one assignment, couldn’t figure out what she was missing, and emailed her instructor on a Saturday. 

She had a reply by Sunday. 

“This program and the way that it’s designed; it’s made for you to be successful.”  

She backs that up with specifics: tutoring resources, the ability to resubmit assignments for mastery, support structures built around the reality that her fellow students are working adults with full lives. The extras are there, and her advice is to take advantage of them.  

Recommended: A Passion for Students and Justice: Christine Leavitt’s Bryan University Journey 

A Proud Moment

Graduating with her associate’s degree with a 4.0 GPA, being inducted into the inaugural classes of the National Technical Honor Society and the National Paralegal Honor Society are all moments of pride for her.  

She also serves as President of the Paralegal Club. She’s helping shape what the club is, and she loves it. 

“The Paralegal Club is a lot of fun, and I have been having an absolute blast with the planning and organizing and all these different things.” 

The club isn’t just social, the weekly meetings also double as professional development. Think NALA exam prep, discussions of new legal software, career exploration.  

“Having the club and the regular staff meetings on Wednesday nights has just been extra learning. There’s always some kind of topic, either getting ready to take the NALA exam to become certified paralegals, or learning a new skill, talking about different software that’s available to paralegals.” 

The club also serves a function that matters in an online program, it gives students each other. 

“Most of us are working adults; we have kids, we’ve got full-time jobs. Some of us are already working in legal positions while the rest of us are not in the law field yet but want to be. The club gives you a sense of community. Anyone from the certificate program up to the bachelor’s, you’re all invited.”  

What She Wishes She’d Known

She’s done online school before. The first time wasn’t good. The school didn’t offer much support, didn’t check in, didn’t seem particularly invested in whether students were succeeding or not. It got discouraging and eventually fell apart. 

Bryan was different in a way she wishes she could have found sooner. 

“I wish I had known about this program years ago. The first time I tried online school, it wasn’t as helpful and there weren’t as many resources available to help you succeed. It got static after a while, it felt like they don’t really care if I’m doing good or not, and there wasn’t really anybody I could reach out to. I wish all online schools operated like Bryan does.”  

Practical Advice for Future Students

If you’re thinking about the paralegal program specifically, she has a few concrete things to tell you. Brush up on your grammar. Get comfortable in Excel. And brace yourself for Latin. 

“Have a notebook ready to write down the Latin terms and their definitions so you can remember all of it, because there are a lot of terms that sound exactly the same as each other.” 

More broadly, she pushes back on the idea that online is somehow harder or less legitimate than in-person. 

“You can do it online more easily than you can do it in a brick and mortar. You have more flexibility. You can create your own schedule with what works for your needs and your family’s needs.”  

Her Biggest Piece of Advice: Plug In

She’s made real friends in this program. Not acquaintances, friends. People she looks forward to seeing, even when seeing them means a Wednesday night video call. 

The reason? She showed up to the meetings.  

“If your degree has some kind of external club or something, plug into it as much as you’re able to. That’s where you get your sense of community because we are an online school, so you’re not sitting in classrooms with people. I have made a lot of great friends just by showing up to the Thursday night meetings and the Wednesday night meetings.” 

And if your program doesn’t have a club? 

“Make one.” 

Recommended:  

Share this content

Request Information

And Get a FREE Career Brochure

Terms of submitting this form: I agree that Bryan University may contact me regarding educational services via email, telephone, SMS text message, or automated technology at the email address and phone numbers provided. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency may vary. Text STOP to cancel anytime. This consent is not required to enroll. For questions, call 1 (888) 768 6861. Visit our Privacy Policy.

← Return to Bryan Newsroom