The next generation of public servants is being disillusioned before we even begin our careers

I started my undergraduate studies at Temple University in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. During that time, I grew nauseated by the phrase unprecedented times — I was tired of having to adapt and learn to cope with a nationwide epidemic not only of COVID-19 but of loneliness and hate.

We were asked to adapt like it was normal. We did, and then eventually things seemed to settle into a changed kind of normal.

I studied psychology and analyzed how social dynamics influence who we are. I also worked full time at a local North Philadelphia bar, where I began to understand the distance between abstract policy and what is experienced and lived.

As odd as it may sound, my experience tending bar inspired me to pursue a law degree at Georgetown University Law Center, with dreams of joining the federal government so I could advance policies that would help everyday people.

I’m now a first-year law student in Washington, D.C., during the first year of the second Trump administration. This time around, I haven’t really heard people use the word unprecedented to describe what students are going through, but I still have that nauseated feeling about everything that is happening.

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My university’s faculty includes many former federal employees and a diverse array of political figures, judicial scholars, administrative lawyers, litigators, and private practice partners who have dedicated their lives to teaching future generations of lawyers the ethical and technical intricacies of justice.

When it comes to discussions about the judicial system, for example, my professors have a distinctive credibility because many of them helped build it.

I speak with my professors regularly about the daily headlines — Americans being wrongfully deported, law firms being singled out for retribution for the “offense” of representing their clients, cuts to funding for scientific research, and other efforts. In our conversations, I look for reassurance, stability, an anchor in the chaos. Through no fault of their own, they are unable to put me at ease.

What we’re seeing now, they say, is, well … unprecedented, and the next generation of public servants is being disillusioned and destabilized before they ever begin their careers.

“You must learn to live with the very strong probability that the America your children will grow up in is very different from the America you grew up in,” one professor told one of my classes.

How much of what I learn will still be true when I receive my degree?

Another professor starts every class with a list of the law firms that have been targeted by the Trump administration. He updates it every day.

My generation of students came to law school with a desire to serve — but the jobs we trained for are vanishing into lawsuits, blacklists, silence. What does it feel like, to be trained for a system that is collapsing? There is an eerie irony radiating through lecture halls as we sit through constitutional law and criminal justice classes.

I will start and complete my legal studies during the Trump administration. What will it be worth, at the end of the day? How much of what I learn will still be true when I receive my degree?

The long-term effects of Donald Trump’s policies are unknown, but I think I will measure them in futures foreclosed, in professors who speak in code, in classmates told to un-dream their dreams.

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Still, our school has made some headlines of its own during the past few weeks, fighting back against the administration’s attempts to control the university curriculum. In doing that, the school and its faculty have equipped us with tools to speak up and speak out, at a time when compliance is cowardice.

Silence is how democracies collapse. The institutions and pipelines of public service are breaking before our eyes. The students in these halls — the ones who will argue your laws, interpret your Constitution, and lead your agencies — are watching, and learning.

I was tired of hearing unprecedented during the pandemic, but now I’m terrified by the pretense that what is happening under the Trump administration is normal. You should be, too.

Sofía Franco is a 22-year-old student at Georgetown University Law Center. A Philadelphia native, Franco studied psychology and political science at Temple University and was a server at Pub Webb for three years. The opinions here are her own.