San Diego-based family lawyer and UAlberta Law alumna Dawn Stahl with her daughter (courtesy of Dawn Stahl)
Ask any lawyer who it was that inspired them to pursue an education and career in the legal profession and you'll likely get a slightly different version of the same story - an inspiring parent, relative, teacher or other older mentor figure, often one who overcame certain obstacles themselves, who achieved unexpected heights in law or even in another related profession.
In the case of expatriate Canadian lawyer and UAlberta Law grad Dawn Stahl, this person was her mother, Rhoda Stahl.
"My mother didn't complete her high school diploma until she was in her late thirties," says Stahl, speaking by phone from her home in balmy San Diego, California, where she has lived and practiced law since 1988.
"After she got her diploma she enrolled in night classes at the University of Alberta, achieving both a bachelor and master's degree in Education with high honours in her forties. She not only went on to become an inspiring teacher, but also started and ran Canada's first high school credit union. She was an extremely driven woman who continues to inspire me to this day."
It was Stahl's desire to both commemorate the life of this inspiring woman (who passed away in 2002), and to give back to the institution that laid the foundations of her own successful career, that gave her the idea of setting up an endowment for the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, in both her mother's name and her own, to be established upon her own passing (depending on her daughter's age at the time).
Stahl hopes that her contribution will help encourage other successful UAlberta Law graduates to do the same.
"As a Canadian lawyer working in the United States, I've noticed a real cultural difference when it comes to charitable giving to one's alma mater," she noted.
"Perhaps due in part to the sky-high cost of education in the US, there seems to be more credit given to the universities' roles in paving the way for future success, and as a result a greater emphasis on giving back to your school.
I look around at my (American) colleagues and see them making yearly donations, and I think to myself that I got an education every bit their equal, if not better. There's less of an emphasis on this in Canada, but I would like to see this change." Stahl, who completed her LLB at the University of Alberta in 1982, says she hearkens back to her time as a law student on a regular basis.
"I'd say my education at the UAlberta is the chief reason for my career success," she asserted.
"A lot of people tie their success to who they've worked with or how hard they've worked. These are of course extremely important factors and I'd never minimize them, but I myself credit my schooling - the professors, the community, the coursework -for getting me where I am today."
Looking for ways to give back to the University of Alberta and make the world a better place through education? Read more here.