Profile - Michael Gardner '10

Undergraduate School: Hampden-Sydney College Hometown: Martinsville, Virginia "I love the outdoors, whether I'm fishing, hunting, hiking, biking, or grilling out. Lexington is in one of the most beautiful parts of the country and, aside from some chilly winters, the climate is ideal."

What's your favorite class/classroom experience?

One of the focuses in Criminal Law is reading statutes or interpreting the common law in such a way that people are convicted only when they are found guilty of every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. To illustrate this point, Professor Sundby will often use a fictitious character called "Grandma Walker." When we study a statute or precedent, we try to imagine situations where Grandma Walker could be acting innocently yet still be convicted. She's had a rough semester – in and out of jail for drug possession, butterfly poaching, possession of an automatic weapon, distributing illicit videos, criminal tax violations, etc… It's always interesting to anticipate what criminal charges Grandma Walker may find herself facing in the next class.

I know it's a little early, but who's your favorite professor?

I really enjoy Professor Kirgis's contracts class. To say he's an accomplished person would be an understatement, and because the class doubles as my small section legal writing course, there are only about fifteen other people in the class. It is a great opportunity to learn from such an impressive teacher in such a small setting.

As a married student, how has the adjustment been?

It was something we were initially worried about, especially Katie finding a job. She has such specific employment needs in order to stay in her field - archeology and historic preservation - we thought we'd have no luck in a small town.

Contrary to those worries, Katie got a better job here than she probably would have gotten in a big city. The undergraduate museum (which, by the way, is not just any old college museum but has some really extensive and invaluable belongings of George Washington and Robert E. Lee) hired her on as an assistant without any previous museum work.

Also, we found out about the position through word of mouth, another small town plus. In summary, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we could both further our career goals while in Lexington.

As far as being a young married couple here, we've found a great social group to hang out with. Many of the law students are married and participate in the law families club, and the wives of law students tend to hang out together every Tuesday night.

Due to the employment demands of two universities and the presence of a graduate school, Lexington has a good number of young couples. A social outlet for Katie was really important to us because, due to my workload, there are a lot of times where she is free to hang out and I am not. Again, luckily, she has found plenty of people to hang out with.