What do Indiana University, Michigan State University, University of Cincinnati, and University of Kentucky have in common?

Though each of these schools danced in the NCAA tournament last March, their most recent connection has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with English senior Gerry Griffith. These universities, along with five others from around the country, have recently accepted Griffith into their law schools. Four offered scholarships, with Michigan State and IU McKinney awarding him full-ride offers.

Before enrolling at IU Southeast, Griffith was home-schooled for most of his life. He said that the transition to college life was an invigorating experience.

“It was like growing up in a desert, then having someone dump you in a pool all of a sudden,” Griffith said. “I came to college hungry, because I’d never had any of these experiences before.

I felt like I was starved a lifetime of being able to do all of these different things that some students take for granted. I was really excited.”

Along with the excitement came a sense of being unprepared, Griffith said. His mother, who has a degree in education from the University of Louisville, focused mainly on science during his home-schooling. Griffith, however, said he always had an interest in English.

“I had to almost teach myself how to write my first couple years of college. I had never written a paper before. I had never even written a paragraph,” Griffith said. “There were a lot of YouTube videos involved and long hours at the writing center my first year.”

Despite all of his current success, Griffith said becoming comfortable with the college atmosphere after being home-schooled most of his life was not an entirely smooth process.

“I had trouble adjusting when it came to being outside of my specific group. When you’re home-schooled, you have this group of friends that you’re outgoing with. But outside of that group, I would’ve never imagined walking up to someone and introducing myself. The most basic human interactions were a struggle,” Griffith said.

Griffith’s first year in college did not go well, as he said he “failed everything.” This is when Griffith said the military came into his life.

“I joined in 2012 and went to basic training. I really matured during that. I learned quite a bit about myself and the world, and I came back a different person,” Griffith said.

Griffith, who is now a Signal Support System Specialist in the Army National Guard, said the military taught him two major things: discipline and how to be his own person.

“I’m not afraid of things. I stopped caring about fear a long time ago,” Griffith said. “That was the coolest thing the military taught. That you don’t have to be defined by your fear or your external circumstances. You can make something of yourself.”

The mindset he developed then translated to a higher degree of academic success. When he returned to his studies, he earned a spot on the Chancellor’s List for five straight semesters. Griffith said he now has a nearly perfect GPA.

“I felt this intense drive. No one really expects anything from you when you’ve been told your whole life that you’re going to fail,” Griffith said. “I worked for it. I wanted to be successful.”

Griffith said he has always had interest in going into law, and that his English studies only pushed him towards the field.

“Being an attorney is a way of thinking. I’ve had countless attorneys, judges, and law professors tell me that you have to see problems differently,” Griffith said. “English was an excellent avenue for that.”

Though it appears Griffith is on a path to a comfortable future, he places the importance of education above the material value of having a degree.

“I didn’t come to college to get a job. I’ve always had this inherent desire to learn. I put an intrinsic value upon learning, as opposed to extrinsic,” Griffith said. “It isn’t about how much money you make or the glamor. It’s about learning this new way of thinking. It gets me jazzed up, and I love that.”

Griffith said he credits a love for biographies as one of the keys to his success, with some of his favorites including Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, and Abraham Lincoln. He said that reading the stories of significant historical figures inspires him to make an impact with his life. The biographies, he said, can be used as a blueprint with which people can plan their own journeys toward success.

“I was reading an autobiography of Ida B. Wells a couple of weeks ago. I was looking at all of the things that people like her had to go through, and even before that when people came to America and subsisted on almost nothing for this abstract dream,” Griffith said.

Griffith uses these stories of overcoming obstacles as motivation, and encourages others to similarly fight for success.

“When you resign yourself to your own fate without even trying, that’s just a bad way to live. You’re going to let all the work that other people did go to waste, people who put it all on the line,” Griffith said. “If you pursue knowledge to its fullest degree, you’ll find the right answers at some point. You’ll get close to what you’re searching for as long as you keep looking.