Johana Audelo-Riano worked at a Harrisburg law firm by day and went to law school at night. The job helped her pay bills, but it also gave her something she needed as a first-generation law student: attorneys who had been through it and could offer advice.
Now a second-year student and entertainment law fellow at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, Audelo-Riano has moved from the evening division to a full schedule of daytime classes. In a new episode of Cafecito con LALSA, she tells host Michelle Ildefonso-Ruelas that the faster pace and heavier course load have required adjustment.
“I’m still trying to get used to it, slowly but surely,” Audelo-Riano said.
Their conversation offers a candid look at what law school asks of students outside the classroom, from managing work and family responsibilities to learning when to ask for help. Ildefonso-Ruelas, a third-year student, president of the Latin American Law Student Association and an entertainment law fellow, recalls spending her first year in “survival mode,” focused on readings and grades while trying to learn how law school worked.
Both students say their families helped shape their decision to pursue law. Audelo-Riano spoke about wanting to help people in her community and hopes to become an immigration attorney. Ildefonso-Ruelas discussed the sacrifices her parents made after immigrating from Mexico and her desire to advocate for others who need help navigating unfamiliar systems.
They also talk about the pressure of finding their way into a profession without a family roadmap. Ildefonso-Ruelas, who has an older brother, reflected on her parents’ sacrifices after immigrating from Mexico. For Audelo-Riano, the oldest of four sisters, pursuing law also means helping her younger siblings find their own way. Networking and building a path in the legal field have been among her biggest challenges, and she wants to make that process easier for her sisters, even as she continues to figure things out herself.
“I felt I had this impostor syndrome, where I was kind of like, ‘I don’t really know if I belong here,’” Ildefonso-Ruelas said of her first year.
Finding friends changed her experience. Through LALSA, which is open to all law students, she met peers who understood the work and the parts of her life she brought to campus. They study together, share opportunities and make room for conversations that have nothing to do with class.
Audelo-Riano found a similar connection with a friend from her evening division class. Both are first-generation students with Mexican backgrounds, she said, and having someone who understood those experiences mattered.
The episode also makes room for lighter law school debates: whether arriving 30 minutes early is worth it, when a study session with a best friend becomes a chat, and how much coffee it takes to get through class. Beneath the laughs is advice for students just starting out. Go to office hours. Get to know your professors. Find people you can count on. Make time to take care of yourself.
As Ildefonso-Ruelas looks toward graduation and the bar exam, she says she feels more confident than she did as a first-year student. Asked what she would tell her younger self, she offers a reminder that reaches beyond her own experience: “You don’t have to have everything figured out. Just take it day by day, and you do belong in these spaces.”
Pour a cafecito and watch or listen to the full episode on YouTube.
