A globe-trotting girl from North Wales is following in the footsteps of US President Barack Obama to study law at Harvard Law School in Boston in the USA.
Katie Jones, a former pupil of all-girls Howells School, has been awarded one of just fifteen available places for a summer term at one of the world’s most famous universities.
The 18-year-old has had a globe-trotting education that has seen her study at top independent all-girls Howells School Denbigh, then graduate from high school at Dana Hall School in Massachusetts.
She has just completed the first year of her Law Degree at another renowned university Griffith College in Dublin.
At Harvard she will be following in the footsteps not only of President Barack Obama but also seven other US Presidents including John F Kennedy, George W Bush and Franklin Roosevelt.
Other distinguished alumni include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, philosopher Henry David Thoreau, actors Jack Lemmon, Natalie Portman and Matt Damon, conductor Leonard Bernstein and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Katie has her eyes firmly on a career in the law in the USA. She said: “I will be living in Boston from June to August. This will be a very intensive course but I am really looking forward to the challenge.
“I was in the legal team in high school and took part in many competitions at places like Harvard and Yale Universities. We studied hypothetical law cases and then fought those cases against other schools, either as the defense or the prosecution.
“I really enjoyed this, and I have many school friends in the States, but I have really fond memories of Denbigh and my time at Howells.
“I still come back whenever I can and as I am also a qualified riding instructor and I sometimes teach at the school’s equestrian centre at weekends.
“My horse Lottie is still stabled at Howells and I enjoy riding her whenever I can.
Katie applied online to Harvard and was accepted after completing an application form and submitting an essay.
After Harvard Katie will return to continue her law degree at Griffith College and then hopes to take a Masters in Law at King’s Inn in Dublin to qualify as a barrister before retunring to the USA to study for the New York Bar exam.
She said: “I studied Latin, English and History at school and I am so pleased to see that Howells girls now study Latin at school from age seven. It’s a great foundation subject and it really helps with English vocabulary, languages, biology and law.
“I grew up in the Vale of Clwyd, in Rhuddlan and Rhyl, so it’s still the place I call home.”
Katie’s mum, Nicola Locke, is a Trustee at Howells school and said: “We’re so proud of Katie. It seems only yesterday that she was a four-year-old girl going to Howells for her first day at school. Now she is all grown up and leaving this week to start another chapter of her life.”
