After the Haiti earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince in January 2010, the Law Center hosted and sponsored two law students from the University of Haiti, nominated by Professor Camille Edouard, Jr. under the guidance of Professor Olivier Moréteau, Mélissa Corneille Jocelyn was one of them. As she had nearly completed her Haitian law degree, she was admitted as a conditional candidate in our LL.M. program in comparative law. Within ten months, she had to complete two research papers, one for the University of Haiti and one for LSU Law, in addition to heavy coursework, leading her to unprecedented success and opening the path to greater accomplishment.
Here is what she wrote before leaving Baton Rouge, in May 2011:
I am returning to Haiti soon because my country needs me. What I have learned from you, not only in the academic training, but also in the values that you demonstrate, and now share with me whether I am near or far, will be of extreme importance for my country. You All of you [at LSU Law] are doing an amazing job and I am proud and happy to have known people like you.
Last week, Mélissa wrote:
After completing my Master’s Degree at LSU Law Center in May 2011, I did a four-month internship at the law firm of Camille Edouard, Jr. Then, I passed the Bar Exam of Port-au-Prince and took my oath of honor as an official lawyer in September 2011.
My first job was at Natcom S.A., a Vietnamese telecommunication company established in Haiti. I worked there as an internal lawyer where I was in charge of the rules and regulations of the company. Then, I joined the team of consultants at the “Commission Nationale de Lutte contre la Drogue (CONALD)” and simultaneously was selected to work at the “Comité National de Lutte contre le Blanchiment des Avoirs (CNLBA).Those two organizations deal with anti-drugs and money laundering control respectively. During my time there, I traveled to Washington D.C. to represent my country in the XXXIV Group of Experts for the Control of Money Laundering, hosted by Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) at OAS (May 30th-31st 2012).
As of May 2012, I am a lead project manager to the General Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Office. In September 2012, I traveled to Paris, where I participated in a training titled: “Elaborer et rédiger des textes normatifs fondamentaux” at Sciences Po in which I learned to develop and write structural normative articles, decrees, etc. Successively, in October 2012, I did a 6-week fellowship Program with Partners of the Americas and worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. There, I wrote three articles, one of which was published on their website.
Everyone at the LSU Law Center is proud of you, Mélissa, for your personal accomplishment and professional training to further the development of your country. Your many friends in Baton Rouge miss you and wish you all the best in your personal and professional life!
