Being A Mentor Has Been Fulfilling
by Chavawn Kelley, law staff
Published May 23, 2023
6 Minute Read
Jessie Salas
Pueblo, CO
Playing cello was an unusual path for a 12-year-old girl from an Hispanic neighborhood in Pueblo. “I practiced every day and dove headfirst into the music of Bach, Brahms, and Mozart.” Jessie recalls a “rude awakening” during her first semester at Colorado State University when she realized how far behind the other students she was in both music and general classes. “At first, I turned inward. I avoided making friends, my grades slipped, and I considered dropping out altogether. Then came my second rude awakening: I would either fail or take charge of my success.”
Jessie went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from Colorado State and followed that with a Master of Cello Performance from the University of Wyoming. On May 19, 2022, her legal and musical worlds converged when she presented a cello performance at the Yellowstone National Park 150th Anniversary Symposium in Cody, Wyoming, an event organized by the UW College of Law and the UW Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.
Says Jessie, “Previous Brimmer scholar Celyn Whitt was my mentor, and I have taken what she taught me and tried to pass that on to incoming first-year students. Being a mentor for younger law students has been fulfilling.”
Jessie is a member of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. She is vice president and founding member of the Wyoming Sports and Entertainment Law Club and has served as the research editor for the 2022-23 Wyoming Law Review. She was one of ten summer associates at Sherman & Howard, LLC, a Denver-based firm serving national clients from nine offices in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
