Vernee Thompson’s Story with ANU
After dedicating 14 years as a full-time caregiver to her three special needs children, Vernee Thompson made the decision to return to school and pursue a Paralegal associate degree at American National University. Married for 16 years and supported by a strong network of family—including her husband, children, mother, siblings, and extended relatives—she approached her education with determination and purpose. Building on her previous bachelor’s degree, she chose to expand her skill set through ANU’s Paralegal program, demonstrating that it is never too late to pursue new professional goals. Her journey reflects resilience, commitment, and the impact of a strong support system in achieving academic and career success.
Her decision to pursue a career in the paralegal field was driven by both practicality and personal interest. After initially planning to earn a second bachelor’s degree, she discovered that her intended program had been dissolved, prompting her to explore alternative educational paths. With a long-standing interest in law, she began researching various legal services careers and identified the paralegal profession as a strong fit. She reviewed programs approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) to ensure quality and credibility. “And since I wasn’t able to attend in person because of children’s disabilities, I decided to see if there were any online schools that the American Bar Association approved of,” she explained. “One of them was American National University, so I reached out to them, they reached back out to me, and that’s how I got enrolled!”
Vernee also highlighted how ANU’s paralegal program expanded her understanding of the paralegal role, as well as prepared her for the realities of the workforce. She explained, “I feel like I – it was a really great course in legal services and legal theory, something I didn’t really think about. Because I’m thinking, ‘oh I’m just a paralegal, I’m just gonna be handling paperwork.’ Well, it’s more than that. You’re also interviewing clients, you’re handling confidential information, you communicating with the courts, you’re communicating with attorneys.” Additionally, learning from career-experienced professors deepened her understanding. “It prepares you for the life of working in a law office – and it helps that your professors are also lawyers, or former paralegals, or current paralegals! So they understood what needs to be done in a law office through our assignments and discussions to help us become paralegals.”
She also pointed to the hands-on tools incorporated into the program as a key part of her preparation, particularly the use of industry-standard legal research platforms like LexisNexis®, which she had access to within her courses. Reflecting on this experience, she shared: “Lexis+ is basically a subscription for legal aid – it helps you look up cases, it helps you research how the cases were decided, how it was treated – was it treated negatively and favorably by the courts – and it gives you the background information on the cases. Also you can use it look up cases – previous cases, supreme court cases, cases in your state, federal as well as state administrative laws, and different things like that. So it was a great, helpful tool… for legal students to use because if you go to your law firm.”
“[ANU] prepares you for life outside of school. It’s not just a bunch of theories, but its real world applications mixed with clinical evaluations when you’re doing your assignments and doing your discussions.”
Throughout her time in the program, she found consistent encouragement and guidance from her instructors, including the Paralegal program dean Wendy Notz, as well as professors teaching her law and business like Traci Dingle, Dr. Lyndsey Obringer, Sheri Clark, and Lisa Custer. Reflecting on their impact, she shared, “All of the professors at ANU have been phenomenal for me. I could reach out to them, they were available for me, to answer questions timely. No question was off limits, everything was clearly explained, and if I had trouble with something, they were very detailed and they were very open and honest with me. All of them were very inspirational for me. So there is not a single one that I could say – they all inspired me, every last one of my professors did.”
Vernee’s future goals are to continue to be a solid figure for her children. Since graduating from ANU, she wants to work within the realm of family law as it was something she focused on in her previous career of social services. However, she takes things day by day. “I take it as it comes, and I just try to live each day to the fullest – because tomorrow is not promised to anybody!”
Would she recommend to ANU to other students looking to earn their higher education? “Yes, I would! I like the ease of the program. It’s still intensive because [a term] is ten weeks. But you learn so much in those ten weeks… You learn synchronously and you learn asynchronously as well,” she explained. “You know I also would recommend it because there’s the flexibility. If you work days, they have night classes – if you work nights, they have day classes. And the professors are very accommodating! I’ve met cohorts in my classes who have full time jobs and are [sic] full-time parents and they still were able to do their work, they were still able to attend their classes.”
“I think no matter where I go in law, I feel like I am prepared more than I would have been if I had not gone to ANU.”
Vernee’s advice to new students: “I would suggest that they do their work – not try to do everything at one time but try to space it out. Know your deadlines. Just time manage. If you have trouble, go to the professors, they’re very accommodating.”
