Michelle Young has seven big reasons to be grateful this holiday season.

Young, who works at the Utah Attorney General's office, graduated from BYU's law school in 2005 as a single mother with seven children, all under the age of 13.

"When I started law school, my youngest was two and my oldest was 11," Young said. "The kids were all for me going to law school. They were my biggest cheerleaders through it."

Young, who received her bachelor's in psychology, said she always wanted to go to law school, but began to have some doubts after her first semester in the program.

"I had gotten through undergrad pretty easily getting good grades," Young said. "When I saw my scores after that first semester they were not as good as I would have liked and I just cried in my car and all the way home. When I got home one of my youngest kids came up to me and was so excited to see me and came running saying 'mommy, mommy!' and I realized that my kids didn't care what kind of grades I got."

Young said there were some times where she would have to choose between studying for a test or taking care of one of her kids.

"My kids were my priority," Young said. "I realized that I wanted to be a good mother rather than be at the top of my class, so I made those choices to take care of my kids and sometimes settle for a B or B+ on a test."

With seven kids at home, studying proved to be a hard task.

"I would try to study late at night," Young said. "But there were still times where my kids would come up to me and ask me questions like, 'why do birds have feathers?' For the most part they were really good, and I had to remember that my children were the most important thing. It's a balance."

After the first year of law school, many students go out and find clerkships and internships to do, most unpaid. Young didn't have that luxury as she had to find a position that was paid and allowed her to pay her mortgage and take care of her kids. She found just that at the Attorney General's office.

"I started off here the summer after my first year and worked hard," Young said. "After that, I continued on and was recommended to be hired full-time."

Young anticipates being at the Attorney General's office for a long time.

"I'm happy every Monday morning, because I love what I do," Young said. "I like the work and feel that I am really making a difference. It also allows me to go home at 5 p.m. and get to parent teacher conferences that day or whatever else is going on with my kids."

Catherine Bramble, a student in Young's graduating class, said she was really an inspiration to all the students. She said no one would ever know that Young was a single mother of seven, because she worked just as hard as everyone else and never asked for any favors.

"On graduation morning in April of 2005, I remember walking into the Provo Tabernacle and seeing all of her 7 children dressed in their Sunday best and quietly sitting on the front row to cheer on their mother as she graduated from law school," Bramble said. "Michelle's example goes to show that anyone, no matter their circumstance, can pursue their dreams of graduate education if they want to badly enough."

Looking back, Young feels very fortunate to have gone to BYU.

"BYU is a great school, very family friendly," Young said. "Having the family support rooms was great. I brought every one of my kids with me to at least one of my classes during my time there."

Young will come to campus on Thursday, at 7 p.m., and speak at the December pre-law student association activity on "The Law and Christian Service." The pre-law department can be contacted at prelaw@byu.edu for more details about the activity or details about joining the pre-law club.

Young said she wants to encourage anyone, who has a desire to go to law school, to go.

"It doesn't take brilliance, it takes determination," Young said. "If you feel like that is what you should do, then you should go and make it happen. If that's what you want to do, then do it. You just have to be determined, work hard and you'll get through it."

Copyright Brigham Young University 4 Dec 2007