Jemison’s relationship with the law began at a young age, inspired by her father, a once distinguished attorney who was incarcerated in Jemison’s early teens. It was through his example, and the arduous nature of his experience with the legal system, that Jemison was emboldened to pursue a career in the law herself. Beginning her undergraduate study at Vassar College, Jemison’s academic and extracurricular pursuits were tailored not only to this ambition to study law, but more crucially to her sense of disillusionment with the assumption of justice, of fair humane outcomes, that seemed to form the ideological foundation of the law.

With this in mind, Jemison has gravitated towards opportunities that would expand her capacity to serve as a more compassionate advocate for the rights of others, both in the law and otherwise. To this end, she accepted an internship with the local Commission on Human Rights focusing primarily on the implementation of a kind of mediation called the Transformative Dialogue Project. After having successfully earned her certification to become a mediator herself, Jemison accepted a research assistant position with the parent organization for the project, the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation, through which she studied and oversaw the implementation and efficacy of mediation focused interventions on human rights outcomes.

In addition to her mediation certification, Jemison has served as a trained counselor and advocate for victims of sexual violation, worked as a writing consultant at her college, and served as the President of her college’s Mock Trial Team and chapter of Primary Care Progress. She finished her undergraduate studies at Vassar with a degree in French and Political Science, with a minor concentration in Ethics and Social Political Philosophy, earning in addition a Certificate in Social Sciences and Humanities as an exchange student with the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris).

With a foundation in the study of international politics and a fluid understanding of the French language, Jemison’s interest in global law is punctuated by a burgeoning understanding of the law, of the interconnected international legal systems in which we live, as nuanced, fluid, human institutions subject to continual reform and evolution. With this in mind, Jemison intends to deepen her study of global law with an emphasis on mediation and arbitration, focusing on the possibility of international law as a means of human rights protection and accountability.