A traditional law practice was never in the cards for Windsor Law graduate Anny Strojin (’83), and that was the very thing that attracted her to UWindsor nearly 30 years ago.
Strojin, a St. Catherine’s native, recently attended a UWindsor reunion at the Shaw Festival, where she heard University President Alan Wildeman encouraging grads to share stories of why they are proud to call UWindsor their alma mater.
“I thought to myself, ‘I am proud and I’m going to take a few minutes out of my day to do that,’” she says. “You don’t always hear people’s positive feedback and it’s nice when someone says, ‘I really appreciate what you’ve done for me.’”
She says she was attracted to the University of Windsor’s law school because it had a reputation of stressing social justice issues.
“They were known to be very proactive in this area and it conforms with my values,” she says. “It makes you realize that you have options and that you can use the skills you acquire in a way that benefits society. It doesn’t always have to be about power and status and money. There is a greater good – these are intangibles, these valuable things you can’t measure.”
After law school, Strojin took a job with the Ontario Human Rights Commission doing mediation and investigating issues pertaining to the Ontario Human Rights Code. She is currently employed as a Human Rights Specialist with the City of Hamilton and says the skills she learned in law school are a good fit with Hamilton’s mission and vision statement.
“They want to be the best place in Canada to raise children, promote innovation, engage citizens and provide diverse economic opportunities. Their values are honesty, accountability, innovation, leadership, respect, excellence, teamwork, and equity,” she says. “The people I met in law school were similar-minded and it reinforced that I’m not alone – it gives you faith in humanity.”
Strojin says that a large number of Windsor Law graduates don’t pursue a traditional law practice and often branch off into human rights and social justice driven careers.
“The people part of my time at the University of Windsor made such a big difference,” she says. “I have eight children and I always tell them, ‘the best time I ever had was when I was in law school.’”
