Rachel Adekanye was born and partly raised in Nigeria. She immigrated to the United States in 2005, at the young age of 11, and has lived in Maryland since 2006. Rachel earned a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2016. During her junior and senior years at UMCP, Rachel competed on the University’s Mock Trial team.

In the summer of 2017, Rachel interned with the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, observing and writing decisions in several administrative cases, such as involuntary admissions to inpatient mental health facilities, licensing cases, home improvement cases, and special education cases. She is currently a second year student at Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Rachel is currently working with Transformative Justice Coalition in Washington, D.C. during her Spring Trimester of law school. Her interest in law stems from her background in Nigeria. While traveling from one city to another with her family, Rachel remembers being stopped in the middle of the road by police officers demanding money before they could let Rachel and her family continue on their journey. Witnessing this and other events throughout the first decade of her life sparked Rachel’s interest law.

In addition to being a student, Rachel is involved in several organizations such as the Honor Council, Women’s Law Association, Black Law Student Association, and Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. Rachel enjoys reading. She tries to read in her spare time. With law school, work, and other life activities, it becomes hard to catch up on reading, so Rachel catches up on her reading on the train while on the way to and back from work. Rachel’s current read is Born a Crime: Stories from A south African Childhood by Trevor Noah.