The 51 individuals who received their law degrees on Monday came from 30 different countries and 20 states. They ranged in ages from 18 to 72. People of color constituted one-third of the class. They were veterans, teachers, social workers and paralegals before beginning law school.

Brian Fraga Herald News Staff Reporter @BfragaHN

DARTMOUTH — Alicia F. Blanchard was about 8 years old when she knew she one day wanted to turn in her Mickey Mouse backpack for a lawyer’s briefcase.

“Driven by a passion to serve others, we chose UMass Law as a way to prepare us to enter society marred by challenges and injustices,” Blanchard, the UMass Law Student Bar Association President, said during Monday’s commencement at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth auditorium.

Blanchard, a native of Littleton who was raised on a farm and worked in hospitality and management at Walt Disney World before attending law school, reflected the diversity of UMass Law’s graduating Class of 2018.

The 51 individuals who received their law degrees on Monday came from 30 different countries and 20 states. They ranged in ages from 18 to 72. People of color constituted one-third of the class. They were veterans, teachers, social workers and paralegals before beginning law school.

“With all the diversity we bring to the law school community, we are united with one common goal, and that is to pursue justice,” Blanchard said.

Congratulations,#UMassLaw Class of 2018!#UMassD2018pic.twitter.com/x3O7B4AsOt

— UMass Law (@UMassLaw)May 14, 2018

Several commencement speakers, including Blanchard, took Monday’s commencement as an opportunity to extol the virtues of Massachusetts’ first and only public law school, which was authorized by the state Board of Higher Education in 2010 to begin offering law degrees.

In “a very short period of time,” UMass Law has “come to outperform several of its private counterparts, and all of its regional counterparts,” said Robert E. Johnson, the chancellor of UMass Dartmouth.

Johnson called upon the future prosecutors, defense attorneys, civil lawyers, law librarians and lawmakers to use the legal skills they learned and developed to better the world and society they will be encountering.

Johnson also spoke of developing “a mindset that values life-long learning, a mindset that recognizes that intellectual agility is needed to thrive in a future of accelerating economic and social change.”

Eric J. Mitnick, law school dean, said that while many people think it is teachers who inspire their students, his students inspired him everyday.

Said Mitnick: “If you can respect and be guided by your craft, if you can face with courage and curiosity your place in the world, if you can build community with true friends and worthy colleagues, and if you can keep fresh and honor the dreams that have inspired you to this point, if you can do these things, your journey will be a noble one and you will make a story worth telling.”

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey was awarded the Chancellor's Medal and addressed the graduates. Johnson introduced her as "a crusader of fair treatment and well-being of every inhabitant" of Massachusetts.

Healey touched upon her work, as the former head of her office's Civil Rights Division, of spearheading the state's successful challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, as well as the work of her office and other attorneys who came to the aid of individuals who were impacted last year by the Trump Administration's travel ban on people from certain Muslim-majority countries.

No matter how big the challenges we must confront, today's@UMassLaw graduates are ready to face them head on and stand up to the most powerful interests and adversaries in the world.

Congratulations graduates!#UMassD2018pic.twitter.com/ZP8r8EBioP

— Maura Healey (@MassAGO)May 14, 2018

"When you have the law on your side, know that you can stand up to anyone who opposes you," Healey said, "No matter how high they sit."

Email Brian Fraga at bfraga@heraldnews.com