"I've had a great experience growing up here, but I know a lot of people who haven't," he said. " I want to be the person who steps in, listens, and builds bridges."
As an intern at Legal Aid of Greater Cincinnati while still in undergrad at Xavier University, Andrew was tasked with compiling eviction demographics. He was struck by the financial imbalance plaguing the city’s disadvantaged: landlords nearly always had legal representation, while tenants—mostly Black women and single mothers—did not.
“A normal eviction hearing is over and done in 45 seconds. It was kind of like a turnstile in the subway,” he recalled. “I saw many people who were not given any recourse, and that’s what you want people to have above all else—a fair shot in our confusing legal system.”
Watching how evictions left some families not just homeless, but also made securing future housing nearly impossible, Andrew’s eyes opened to the systemic and legal barriers he hadn’t seen before. That’s when his path toward a law degree became clear.
“I realized that as a person, you can advocate for people. But as a lawyer, you can advocate by changing the law,” he said. "I wanted to be someone who works to make Cincinnati better."