Vanderbilt became Melissa Gerdts’ top choice among the 13 law schools she applied to because of its strong International Legal Studies Program. A native of Colombia whose family lives in Miami, Florida, Melissa focused on international comparative studies as an undergraduate at Duke University. It allowed her to explore the culture, history, politics, and language of one geographic region of the world, culminating in a capstone research project that analyzed Tudor-era discrimination laws on the Roma community and how they shaped British national identity through the 17th century.
Melissa’s research compelled her to apply for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award in Spain, where she was placed through a U.S. Embassy co-sponsored grant at the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, a nonprofit organization that promotes Roma rights in Madrid. She taught English to students ranging from 5 to 30 years old. “Working with the children was fun, but what impacted me most were the employment programs for young adults, where we did a lot of real-life simulations, and the female empowerment program for the women, where we discussed dealing with Roma and gender stereotypes.”
Her experience at FSG solidified her desire to focus on human rights and international law, and she applied to law schools from Madrid.
Professor Michael A. Newton, who directs the International Legal Studies Program, connected Melissa with current VLS students also interested in practicing international law. “They were enthusiastic about Vanderbilt’s academics, the opportunities Vanderbilt had opened up for them, and the International Legal Studies Program,” she said.
Melissa touts Vanderbilt’s engaged faculty as one of the Law School’s major assets, and she has appreciated its academic rigor. “I’ve had an incredible experience with faculty in my classes here, starting my first year, and I’ve learned a lot of material very quickly each semester in every class,” she said.
She found that Professor Newton’s International Law Practice Lab offered “one of the most enlightening and practical” of her classroom experiences. “While we learned about treaty formatting and various negotiation strategies and techniques in the classroom, we were also working on group research projects for real clients,” she said. Students worked with a State Department grant, drafted a prosecutorial memo with lawyers from other nations, and researched new legal arguments for R2P [the Responsibility to Protect populations from genocide and crimes against humanity] and extraterritorial jurisdiction for the European Court of Human Rights.
Her favorite class was the International Law Colloquium, where students read original work by eight international legal scholars who presented their papers to the class and provided written and verbal feedback. Melissa relished the opportunity to explore a variety of international law topics while honing her writing skills. As a 3L, she worked as a research assistant to Professor Ingrid Brunk (Wuerth), assisting Brunk’s research on central bank immunity and confiscation of Russian assets to be used as reparations for Ukraine due to the unlawful Russian invasion in 2022.
Melissa chose her extracurricular activities based on her personal and professional interests. She is president of Phi Delta Phi, the International Legal Honor Society. Her strong organizational abilities garnered her the position of managing editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review as a 3L.
She also served as vice president of La Alianza, and as La Alianza’s representative for the Law School’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council. “I’m Colombian, and building community among my Latinx peers has always been a priority for me,” she said. “I think it’s important to highlight issues that are particular to POC/Latinx in the legal sphere.”
During her second and third years of law school, Melissa was the Legal Aid Society’s Public Interest Auction co-chair and director. The annual auction raises money to provide stipends that help defray the living expenses of students who spend a summer working as unpaid public interest interns with legal nonprofits that serve those traditionally underrepresented.
Melissa worked as a summer associate with Sidley Austin in Dallas and in Washington, D.C., and will join the firm’s Washington office after graduation. She hopes to focus on privacy and cybersecurity law, leading to a career in public international law.
