NEBLSA Member of the Month

Ariel Woodard-Stephens

Northeastern University School of Law

Ms. Ariel Woodard-Stephens is a first year law student who attends Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her B.A. in Government and International Politics with a minor in English at George Mason University in Virginia.
Throughout her undergraduate career at George Mason, Ms. Woodard-Stephens was very active in her community. She served as the Vice-President of the Student Advisory Committee , the student-athletes governing body. While serving as Vice-President, she spearheaded numerous community service initiatives including Sno Cones 4 School Supplies, a fundraiser to provide school supplies to Title 1 schools (schools with a high percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch), which has become an annual event.

Further, Ms. Woodard-Stephens also served in Academics and Student Life Coordinating with the Career Services Office while at George Mason. Programs she executed included resume workshops, business lunch etiquette workshops, and steps for preparing for graduate school. She made sure that her fellow teammates were both academically and professionally prepared.
Since enrolling at Northeastern, Ms. Woodard-Stephens has been very active in her local chapter of BLSA as well as at the regional level. In her local chapter, she was elected 1L Co-Chair and is responsible for leading a group of her classmates in the planning of Black History Month events for the chapter. Although she has only been in law school for a few short months, she has participated in all of the community service events that the chapter has held including volunteering at the Dorchester Codman Square Farmer's Market and walking in the Making Strides for Brest Cancer Walk. She has also tried meeting and networking with Black law students all over the Boston area at other school's local chapter events.

In October, she was the only 1L to travel with regional board members and other local chapter leaders to view the Fisher v. University of Texas case at the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.

The only daughter of distinguished Air Force veterans, Ms. Woodard-Stephens has carved out her own piece of the pie and has shown the world what it means to be a shining star!