Carrie Helmold

Carrie Helmold ’01 balances a Boston legal career, an advanced law degree program, and weekly rehearsals in a community band — a routine similar to her Cornell experience. While on the Hilltop, she triple-majored in French, Russian, and music, with many music performance roles.

Helmold played French horn in Cornell’s wind Ensemble for four years, in orchestra for two years, and in a Lyric Theatre production. She also sang in concert choir for three years, took four years of flute lessons, and played flute in a student-run pep band.

“I think any liberal arts degree is a good preparation for law school because you just have to know how to learn quickly and think critically,” she says. “Cornell definitely teaches you how to set priorities and accomplish a lot on a tight schedule.”

Helmold earned her J.D. at Boston University where she is now working towards an L.L.M. degree, and says her graduate experience makes her appreciate Cornell all the more.

“I went to a huge university for law school, which reinforced for me the importance of having gone to a small college where I benefited from individual faculty attention,” she says.

She also retains fondness for the block plan.

“I found it so much more pleasant to focus on one subject at a time, especially when it was a subject I was truly interested in,” she says. “Also, because of the scheduling, I was able to complete three majors. It would have been difficult to study two foreign languages at any other school, but because of the block plan it was easy for me to compartmentalize each language. “