Student in Dual JD program awarded fellowship

Photo courtesy of Matthew Furgele

By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News

Law student Matthew Furgele admits that TV shows provided some inspiration to study law, but he also was drawn to the law because—similar to math and history that he enjoyed in high school and in undergrad—it is another area of problem-solving in the present world.

“Math gave me a process to approach a problem and verify why an answer is correct.  History allowed me to see that there is more than one way to look at things. Together, I felt these topics gave me a fuller understanding of problem-solving that I found intriguing,” he says.

“During high school and undergrad, I was a part of a mock trial team, and I enjoyed struggling through the fact patterns to develop a workable argument. I found it interesting to see how other people approached the same problem and see how similar or different it was to my and my team’s approach.”

Furgele earned his undergrad degree in math and history from Ursinus College, a liberal arts college in suburban Philadelphia. He is now studying in the Dual JD Program offered by the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and Detroit Mercy Law, where he enjoys the smaller community that allows for more opportunities to get to know his professors and classmates.

“I found the Dual JD Program to be almost an extension of what I loved during my experience in college,” he says. “I enjoyed studying two fields that many people found to be nearly opposites. By learning math and history concurrently, I felt more parallels between them than most people realize. I like to believe that by studying more than one subject, I understood the other better. In turn, I felt the Dual JD Program would give me a similar experience when learning about Canadian and U.S. law.”

Furgele says he is “very honored” to have been selected to be a Transnational Fellow. 

“I hope to live up to the expectations that come with it,” he says. “I don’t have a concrete career goal yet, or a particular legal focus. I want to keep my mind open to the possibilities of other fields of law I may not know about or know enough about yet. My career goal is to become a good lawyer.” 

He also hopes to take advantages of such programs as internships and clerkships, once he settles into his studies and can make concrete plans.  

Furgele adds that he is coping well with remote studies. 

“This is not the first time I’ve had to take classes over the computer, so I don’t have to worry about that learning curve as much,” he says.  

A native of Horsham, Pa., a few miles north of Philadelphia, Furgele now makes his home in Detroit, where he enjoys solving puzzles, riddles, and things of that nature.  

“When I have a larger block of free time, I enjoy playing video games, watching a television show, or going for a walk if the weather is nice,” he says. “I enjoy taking walks along the riverfront; and exploring the city looking for new restaurants.” 


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