From the Honors College to Cornell Law School to the Supreme Court

Maria Giovanna Jumper '21, JD, credits her Adelphi experience with inspiring her interests and preparing her for law school and beyond.

When Maria Giovanna Jumper '21, JD, graduated from Cornell Law School in May 2024, she participated in two court cases. For the first, she contributed to an amicus brief (a document that someone who is not part of a court case writes to give extra information and opinions to help the court make a decision) informing an advisory opinion (advice from a legal authority) before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Then, in the spring of 2024, in U.S. Department of State v. Muñoz before the Supreme Court of the United States, Jumper co-authored an amicus brief with two other law school students in support of respondent Sandra Muñoz, a civil rights attorney and U.S. citizen.

The justices ruled 6-3 along ideological lines that Muñoz does not have a fundamental liberty interest in her noncitizen spouse's ability to be admitted to the United States. For Jumper, the result was disappointing, but also motivational.

"Working on immigrants' rights activism and cases became an important part of my law school career and is something I hope to keep working on," she said.

She credits her time as a Panther with preparing her to excel at a prestigious law school, graduate with honors and secure a position at a New York law firm.

Honing Her Skills at Adelphi

Jumper began to focus on immigrants' rights and environmental justice as an undergraduate. With the support of the Honors College, she created an interdisciplinary studies major enabling her to study political science, economics and philosophy. She said her interdisciplinary major enabled her to look at environmental justice through the economic, political and philosophical lenses. For her honors thesis, she researched worldwide water quality issues.

Jumper said Katie Laatikainen, PhD, professor of political science and international relations, initially mentored her interest in international law and international legal affairs. She participated in Dr. Laatikainen's National Model United Nations course and in her study abroad partnership in Finland. "I took a lot of her classes because I really love learning international politics from her," Jumper said. "And that really pushed me toward doing international law."

She also joined The Delphian as a reporter and was named editor in chief in 2020. "I was writing articles so quickly and getting them out and proofing them, and that was really helpful in law school," she said. In May 2023, she was named editor in chief of the Cornell International Law Journal.

"Coming into a small school and being in the Honors College, I really was able to do everything that I wanted to do," she noted. "That's not something that a lot of my colleagues who went to bigger schools could say. I was able to shape my degree and figure out exactly what I wanted to research, and I had the support of professors in doing that."

Future Focused

Jumper is spending the summer studying for the New York state bar exam. She already has a job lined up in October as a first-year associate with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in downtown Manhattan, where she worked last summer in the litigation department.

"Law school has been awesome. I've done a lot of really cool projects and got to take a lot of great classes and meet great people-and I'm excited for what's to come," she said.