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Student Success Story: Angelo Capuano

• Thompson Legal and Regulatory Limited Award, best Bachelor of Laws student - July, 2006
• Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and Valedictorian of the VU Faculty of Business and Law - November, 2007
• Law Lecturer/Tutor, Victoria University and Deakin University Schools of Law - February, 2008
• Judges' Associate to the Honourable Justice Gray of the Federal Court of Australia - scheduled in February, 2008, to commence September, 2008
• Accepted, postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) at the University of Oxford, Corpus Christi College, UK - March, 2008
• Winner, Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship

"As I eagerly look forward to work as a Judges' Associate to the Honourable Justice Gray, of the Federal Court of Australia, and taking my place as a postgraduate law student at the University of Oxford as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar, I am beset by the opportunities I have as a VU law graduate. Now, as I teach law at Deakin University and VU, I am thankful that I am one of the lucky few to have had the chance and opportunity to study law.

My fondest memories of VU were the socio-legal discussions with my lecturers and mentors Dr Stephen James, Dr Michael Longo, and, of course, Professor Neil Andrews. It is one thing to teach facts and theories, it is quite another to promote free intellectual inquiry that nourishes a student's desire and "addiction" to THINK. But that is exactly what my VU mentors did. As a result, it was only natural that I would start publishing in fully refereed law journals as a 19-year-old law student who was recovering from corneal eye transplant surgery from 2004. VU really got me thinking... literally! As a branded VU 'thinker', I have no doubt the VU spirit will live on in my lecture theatres, places of work, and, eventually, Oxford. I am at odds to decide what, if anything, the law faculty at VU could have done better.

Also, for professors and lecturers to take hours to debate and converse with students on matters beyond course content certainly reflects a commitment to not only teaching, but mentoring. Invariably, the interest shown by these academics spilt over into the student population and created a very vibrant and 'thinking' law school in which challenging conventional thinking is not only encouraged, it's expected!

To describe Victoria University in one word, I would say 'ingenuity' because it encapsulates VU's impact on my intellectual development and pursuit of free intellectual inquiry."

Contact:	Daniel Walder Communications and Marketing Officer Faculty of Business and Law
Phone:	+61 3 9919 1554
Email:	daniel.walder@vu.edu.au