Kara Rosengren was born and raised in Michigan and spent most of her formative years in the small village of Holly. It was also where she fell in love with dance. She vividly recalls her very first dance class at six years old; she knew then and there that she was born to be a dancer. Her passion for dance followed her to Western Michigan University where she got her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and then pursued what many would say was an illustrious dance career.
“I danced with a couple small, mid-level dance companies, mostly in Chicago, and eventually started my own company, and put on some productions,” shared Rosengren. “I taught dance for 12 years, children through adults. Even two-and-a half and three-year-olds, which was one of my specialties. I really connected with that age group.”
It was time to make a change. Rosengren was ready to leave the dance profession and lean-into a new direction in her life.
She just wasn’t sure what that was and which way to go, other than trying things out.
“I spent a couple years trying to figure things out,” shared Rosengren. “I did cake decorating for a couple years; I did soaps and lotions for a while; I had an Etsy company for a hot minute; then I tried dog sitting and dog walking because I loved animals. But these really weren’t necessarily new careers, but more placeholders until I found my true path.”
But in 2017, something inside her said she needed to do more than try things out. She needed to figure things out.
“I knew now was the time to get going and to find my new path,” stated Rosengren. “I started by taking courses at Washtenaw Community College (WCC) and targeted the criminal justice and prelaw track because I thought being a paralegal sounded interesting. I wasn’t thinking law school at all.”
It was a professor at WCC who asked her why she wasn’t considering going to law school. It was the perfect path for her to follow in the mind of her professor. That idea was hard to imagine at the time for Rosengren.
“Law school? That’s hilarious! You guys are so funny. I’m approaching 40, I’m an ex-professional dancer, why would law and law school want anything to do with me?”
But her response later bothered her. Why did she feel this way and why was she cutting herself short? It took a couple more semesters at WCC before Rosengren had the courage to take the dare.
“Now that I’m in law school and doing well, I tell people I am here on a dare! I thought about it a lot.
Then I said to myself, you know what, I should try this now, before I get too old and tired and scared, and then regret it later.
If it all doesn’t work out, I can come back to the paralegal stuff. I ultimately asked myself, ‘could I be a lawyer? Could I go to law school and be a lawyer? Yes, I can. Let’s try it!’ So, I did.”
Rosengren came to law school open minded, allowing herself the space to fail, which wasn’t something she would do in the past.
“I’ve never given myself an out before, but law school was different,” said Rosengren. “I knew I was going to work my butt off. That was a given. But if things weren’t going well, then I was going to leave it behind and just go back to finding something else.
“Surprisingly, all the skills that I learned as a dancer, like perseverance, hard work, and discipline, seemed to really matter in law school, when the same skills didn’t seem to amount to anything in my dance career. It’s crazy. Every step I’ve taken in law school has shown me that hard work does pay off because there are actual benchmarks.”
The dance world according to Rosengren is rigid and hard on you. There’s no patting yourself on the back, only the expectation that every step requires you to do more or that you are replaceable at every level.
At Cooley Law School, your accomplishments are celebrated and validated.
“I have to say, as far as the world goes, I have a really strong outer shell, but there’s definitely been some hangover from that mentality,” explains Rosengren. “As a woman, but also in a world where you’re just never good enough and you’re always being compared to people that don’t exist. What I learned about myself is that the things that I hold valuable, such as being loyal and honest and hardworking, disciplined, all those things, mattered in my life. That’s when I knew I needed to make a career change.”
Rosengren would be the first to say that her husband Ken’s love and support has given her the strength and courage to be her best person.
“My husband, I’ll say it a hundred times over, is our better half. Through a lot of happenings and circumstances, we ended up together. We were dating before I could legally drink and now it’s been half a lifetime. He is the sweetest and nicest and most supportive man I could’ve ever chosen as a partner. He is a quiet and kind soul and has always trusted that I will figure stuff out on my own and supports me in whatever way he can.
“He has never tried to make my decisions for me, only supportive and proud of anything I do, including going to law school. In fact, whenever I get an award or something at Cooley, he’s the one that’s texting everybody; he’ll text his parents and be like ‘Kara got the top grade in her class.’ It’s sweet. He’s out there telling everyone how I’m doing and he’s so proud and impressed. He’s my quiet champion. Always standing back and letting me follow my instincts. He’s the best husband ever.”
Rosengren had several things she wanted out of a law school when she was looking at law schools in Michigan. There were only three law schools that offered a part-time program, which included Cooley Law School. Several professors from WCC were graduates of Cooley and recommended the program as well.
But she needed more than just a part-time program, she was looking for one that was the most affordable and offered a program with a diverse student body. She applied to all three law schools and Cooley stood out for her.
“Cooley offered me a scholarship, and a part-time program that included students who were also full-time students, and I could get to know them as well. This school says, ‘hey, you’ve got what we want, we want you to come here,’ there were incentives. I’ve never had that before. It was my first taste of ‘we think you’re interesting enough, you meet all these parameters, here’s some money, come here!’ and I was like, ‘okay!’ I knew as soon as I came here that I had chosen right, that this was the best place for me, absolutely.”
Rosengren recalls being approached by Professor Christi Henke about whether she had ever thought about being a dean’s fellow. She was flattered and interested in putting herself in the new role of helping others. After all, her dance career was mostly all about her. She wanted to change that.
“When I came to law school, I knew that I wanted to participate in something that has a two-fold benefit. I don’t want to do something that just benefits me, I want to make sure that anything I do also benefits someone else. I saw it as a way I could give back. I never imagined I would do so well in law school, but I also know that the support I received in the ARC gave me the tools I needed to excel.”
Plus, according to Rosengren, a lawyer’s job is all about helping others.
“When we get out into the world, we are fiduciaries, that’s literally what our job is. It is to work for the benefit of our clients, to support them, to keep them safe, to fight for them. So, as a Dean’s Fellow, I feel like we are fighting for our incoming students, helping, and advocating for their success.”
Rosengren wants new students to know that she is there for them, no matter what the question or the struggle.
“We are here to help each other out. It’s just nice that there’s always somebody here on the sixth floor you can come up and ask one of us any kind of question. Even if it’s not about academics. We all started in the exact same way and we’re running through it together. If I can ease someone’s mind, or help them understand something better, or just make somebody feel better about their journey, yeah! That’s amazing! I am grateful. When someone believes in you, even when you are having a hard time believing in yourself, that gives you a boost.”
Rosengren’s law school journey has been a wonderful path of exploration and enlightenment. Every step has created more paths of opportunity, so she is keeping her options open by staying present and open-minded.
“I’ve done some volunteering, some expungement fairs, which I enjoyed, so I joined the Cooley Innocence Project as my clinic experience. It seems like such a worthwhile thing to do, and I am looking forward to it. Each thing I do gives me more of a picture of where I see myself. I know that my decision won’t be about the money or about working at a big law firm. I want to feel good about what I’m doing, and more specifically, I hope what I do will benefit people who are less privileged than I am.”
For now, Rosengren is focused on law school. She and her husband have traveled extensively over the years, but law school has slowed things down.
“I only have so much time and so many weeks off, so the idea of packing a bag and going somewhere, walking around and sightseeing, sounds exhausting, but if we did want to go somewhere, our favorite destination is a beach vacation. We can just lay under an umbrella by the pool, on the water, with a drink, and we can sit there and read a book for fun with no case law in it, enjoying the fresh air.”
If Rosengren had advice for new students, she would want you to allow yourself the space to grow and change. And be flexible.
“I would tell people going forward, if this is their first career, that you just should roll with it. Roll with the good, roll with the bad, maybe it works out, maybe you’re a lawyer for the rest of your life, maybe you venture off into something else, and that’s okay. You just never know. Give yourself the space to change. I was never supposed to be here, but I’m here now, and I’m super grateful for that.”