Students: Striving to make a difference

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Students: Striving to make a difference

Sophie Funderburk: Embracing an evolving career

Headshot of Sophie Funderburk Ever since she was young, second-year student Sophie E. Funderburk knew she wanted to attend law school. However, after graduating from Davidson College, she decided immediately pursuing her legal education was not the best decision.

“I think that was an important realization for me – for my journey to go a slightly different way before coming back to law school,” she said.

Funderburk’s grandfathers inspired her next steps. One served in the U.S. Marine Corps, while the other served in the Navy. Their dedication to service resonated with her and influenced her decision to pursue U.S. military service.

“I was afraid, but I called the Marine recruiter anyway, and I had a great conversation with him,” Funderburk said. “It felt like a challenge, like I wasn’t sure that I would make it. The attrition rate for females was very high at the time – about two-thirds of the women who joined did not make it through Officer Candidates School – but that honestly felt like the right time for me, where I was in life.”

Funderburk joined the Marines in 2011. Though she originally planned to stay for four years, she ultimately served on active duty for 11 years and completed three deployments.

“It took me a little bit longer to come back to school because I fell in love with the Marine Corps,” she said. “I fell in love with the culture and the experiences that I had.”

A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Funderburk wanted to return to the Southeast for law school to be closer to her family and friends. The School of Law stood out to her for its value, environment and leadership.

After her time away from education, the transition to law school was initially challenging for Funderburk. “I could have easily not come back,” Funderburk said. “But it was something that kept gnawing at me. At every season of my life, it came back.”

Her parents have been her greatest source of motivation, supporting her throughout each phase of her journey – from military service to law school.

“I think it goes a really long way knowing that, if I fail, it would not change anything about my mom’s and dad’s feelings for me. If I am top of the class, it won’t change their feelings for me,” Funderburk said. “They’re there to fiercely support me in whatever it is that I end up doing.”

This past summer, Funderburk was a legal intern for Senior Judge Richard Leon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The experience aligned with her interest in litigation as well as her broader goal of working in the Washington, D.C., area after she graduates.

Beyond academics, she has found a strong and supportive community at UGA. “I’m always in awe of the alumni network that this school has, whether it’s the undergrad or the law school network,” Funderburk said. “It’s such a large but tight-knit network of people, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it.”

Funderburk, who is a recipient of the Butler Distinguished Law Fellowship, remains focused on making an impact through the relationships she builds through her experiences.

“I think that the key takeaway for me – when I look back on my life and my success or something that I’m proud of – is the people who I was around and was able to impact or who impacted me and who changed my life and my trajectory,” Funderburk said.

Carolina Mares: Connecting cultures through legal practice

Headshot o Caroline Mares Recent graduate Anna C. “Carolina” Mares has always been passionate about international affairs, an interest rooted in her multicultural upbringing. She spent part of her childhood in Spain, her mother’s native country, before permanently moving to Georgia at the age of eight.

Her international background influenced her decision to become a French and Spanish middle school teacher, a career she enjoyed for 10 years in Atlanta.

“[My early career choice] shows that my connection to languages and culture is a really meaningful part of who I am,” Mares said. “It’s a big part of my identity.”

Dedicated to sharing different cultures with her students, she helped create her middle school’s first French exchange program and published El Laberinto Secreto, a historical fiction novel tailored to her students’ level of Spanish proficiency.

Her passion for teaching and inspiring her students was a significant part of her decision to attend law school. “I kept telling my students, ‘You are going to be the ones who go and make the change,’” Mares said. “After a while, I thought I could do it too.”

Mares views the legal profession as an opportunity to continue learning and writing about global issues while becoming an agent of change. This mindset helped her thrive at the School of Law, where she pursued multiple career-building opportunities.

As part of the Washington, D.C., Semester In Practice program, Mares completed an externship in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, working with attorneys who assist policymakers with implementing foreign policy.

“There was so much focus on alleviating human suffering through diplomacy – through cooperation – and I saw that these attorneys carried the values that I want to have in my future career,” Mares said.

She also participated in the Global Externship Program after her first year, working in Tunisia at a specialized international arbitration firm. “I worked on cases related to oil and gas in Dubai and procurement in North Africa, and all of it was exhilarating and fascinating,” Mares said.

These offerings were a key factor that drew Mares to the School of Law. “Those were very unique opportunities, and the fact that UGA has supported that shows the school understands that practicing in an international context requires more than just theoretical knowledge,” Mares said.

She added that her husband is the reason she was able to pursue her legal education. His decision to change careers from wholesale landscaping to information technology influenced Mares to change her own career path.

“[Attending law school] felt so much more feasible and realistic, because I had seen my partner do the same thing already,” she said.

Mares currently works at Alston & Bird, where she will serve for one year before clerking for Judge Michael L. Brown (J.D.’94) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

She said she is grateful she approached law school with curiosity and explored a variety of opportunities.

“Keeping an open mind and working to find opportunities that are on the path less traveled can be challenging, but I found that UGA has so many people who are willing to mentor – whether it’s classmates, whether it’s people in the field or whether it’s professors,” Mares said. “And if you keep an open mind, people are there to help you explore all the opportunities available.”

Antavious McCarden: Making meaningful connections

Headshot of Antavious McCarden Attending the University of Georgia School of Law was an “easy choice” for third-year student Antavious L. “Ant” McCarden. He earned his bachelor’s degree at UGA, so when choosing to do his legal studies in Athens, he was already familiar with the campus and invested in the Bulldog community.

“I think getting involved as an undergrad student was one of the best things I could have done,” McCarden, who served as an orientation leader, said. “That passion and that connectivity that I felt as an undergrad student carried over to the law school and encouraged me to want to get involved here.”

McCarden has held leadership positions in the Student Bar Association all three years, and he is currently serving as 3L class president. One of his favorite activities is organizing SBA tailgates before football games.

“It’s nice to be able to couple that fervor for the athletic department and the football team with the law school community,” McCarden said. “It’s fun to see my classmates not in the law school or with their head face-first in a book. It’s just fun to be able to build community that way.”

He values relationships with not only his classmates but also his professors. He makes an effort to engage with them about class material, professional advice and life in general.

“I feel like I have great relationships with almost all of my professors, which really speaks to the character and the quality of professors that we have here,” McCarden said. “They’re not just worried about the academics – they actually care about the students.”

McCarden, a recipient of the Judge Steve C. Jones Scholarship, has also gained guidance from School of Law alumni. He met Brian P. Cain (J.D.’87) at a Board of Visitors event where McCarden was a featured student speaker. That connection led to McCarden working at Cain’s firm – Holt Ney Zatcoff & Wasserman – during the summer after his first year of law school. He returned to the firm the following summer.

“It was an awesome opportunity – my first legal job, great mentors, people who were really in tune and intentional about wanting to teach and explain, rather than just to direct and hope for the best,” McCarden said.

He values the support he has received from Cain and all of his mentors throughout his education.

“It takes a village to get to this point, and I’ve had a lot of great professors – and teachers in my earlier years – who have poured a lot into me and encouraged me to be the best version of myself,” McCarden said.

He added that he especially appreciates his parents for all they have done for him. Being an only child, much of McCarden’s college experience involved him and his parents facing things together.

“I am trying to give back to the work and intentionality that my parents have had in raising me,” McCarden said. “I just want to make my parents as proud as possible, while also making myself as proud as possible.”

Although McCarden is still deciding on a career path, he knows he wants to continue fostering the sense of community and connectivity on which he thrives.

“Hopefully I will be somewhere where I feel connected not only to the local community but also to whatever my work experience will be – somewhere I can make a difference and hopefully be a resource to others who will come after me,” McCarden said.

—All profiles by Mason A. Brock