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Sonia Sotomayor (b. June 25, 1954) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was born and raised in New York City to Puerto Rican parents who immigrated there from Puerto Rico. After graduating from high school at 16 years old, she earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Princeton University and then graduated with honors with her law degree magna cum laude from Yale Law School in 1979. Following graduation, she worked as a prosecutor for four-and-a-half years before becoming a partner at Pavia & Harcourt, a small Manhattan law firm specializing in intellectual property litigation and white collar criminal defense work. In 1991 President George H W Bush nominated her to be a District Judge for the Southern District of New York which she held until 1997 when President Clinton appointed her as judge on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where she served until 2009 when President Obama nominated her to become Associate Justice on the Supreme Court where she was sworn into office Aug 8th 2009
Sotomayor’s memoir is about her life and how she overcame obstacles to achieve her greatest aspiration. She wrote it to answer the questions people often ask her when they are inspired by what she’s done. By sharing her story, Sotomayor hopes that others will be encouraged and inspired by what they read. Her biggest accomplishments happened when she was focused on helping other people instead of thinking about herself. As a Supreme Court Justice, Sotomayor doesn’t want to lose sight of this larger purpose as she moves forward in her career. She never set out to become a Supreme Court Justice; rather, she tackled challenges as they came along and eventually made it all the way there from an impoverished neighborhood filled with drugs and crime.
The book begins with the author’s childhood. She lived in a housing project, and she was close to her grandmother. Her parents were not always there for her, so she became self-sufficient at an early age. Her father died when she was nine years old, which changed her life for better and worse; it made things easier because he wasn’t around anymore but harder because of the loss. After his death, parties stopped being thrown by her family members and started again once they got over their grief.
One of the books she read in high school was Lord of the Flies, which helped her understand how law could be used for good. She also learned to communicate with people from different backgrounds and use reason and emotion when speaking. Her history teacher encouraged critical thinking over memorization, and she joined Forensics Club at Princeton University to improve her public speaking skills. Her coach there helped her apply to Ivy League schools, where she was accepted.
When Sonia Sotomayor was a student, she couldn’t relate to her privileged peers who had traveled and seen parts of the world that were alien to her. However, she also realized that they could be naive about life in ways that she wasn’t. She felt academically behind them and committed herself to being a lifelong learner. She joined organizations dedicated to improving Hispanic students’ access to higher education as well as Hispanic professionals’ representation in higher education institutions. Her commitment inspired her to join mainstream organizations such as Discipline Committee where she worked toward inclusion by contributing time and effort for both Hispanic and mainstream organizations. During law school, Sotomayor met José Cabranes, an activist working on civil rights issues with Hispanics. After graduation from Yale Law School, Sotomayor accepted a job offer from the New York District Attorney’s office where she continued working toward inclusion by building bridges between ethnic groups through her work at this organization too.
