By Bohdan James, Norman High School
Picture this, a man on trial for a crime he didn’t commit. The defense attorney he has been assigned is mediocre and does a poor job. He loses the case and is forced to endure time in prison that wasn’t meant for him.
That is what Thalia Henry hopes to prevent in her pursuit of a career as a defense attorney.
Thalia is a 16-year-old junior at Lawton’s MacArthur High School who has wanted to be a defense attorney since she was a little girl. Her motivation comes from how she wants to provide equal opportunity for minority communities and people who are less fortunate.
This was further proven when she joined the debate team.
“I think it’s setting me up for a court room setting,” she said.
Thalia participates in extemp debate, which is short for extemporaneous. It helps her career path by preparing her to think on her feet, she said.
“When I am speaking to people I can be actively engaged in the conversation and it keeps me aware of what’s going on in the world,” she said
Some of her favorite memories from debate were when she won extemp, prelims and extemp finals and qualified for regionals in a tournament. That was special because she won a medal and it was one of her first in-person tournaments.
Another memory is when the team went to the Parallel Forest, Medicine Park and Mount Scott in Comanche County.
“It was a really good bonding moment and is what set me and my team apart from others because we are more like a family than a team,” she said.
Now her focus is making this path a reality by researching law schools with her dream school being Columbia Law. But with its price and exclusivity she has had to start looking elsewhere and somewhere closer to home such as OU or North Texas.
The choice of these two has left Thalia conflicted because “the tuitions are basically the same.”
Some factors affecting her decision include how her brother and friends are going to OU and how she likes the campus at OU. But in her heart wants to go to North Texas.
“It has the same benefits as OU but it’s diverse and it’s where I would feel more comfortable,” she said.
