LAWYER WITH A TEACHING LOVE

It has been one year now that Angёle H.Wilson (Aurjul), returned to Anguilla, and to quote her “it’s been an adjustment in more ways than one, however, despite the various challenges I am happy to be back home”. Some twenty years prior, Aurjul, her parents along with the rest of her siblings migrated to the US Virgin Islands. As a young adult she was a primary school teacher who started out at the Road Primary School where Dizzy (on his way to and from work in Blowing Point) dropped her off and picked her up until her transfer to Island Harbour Primary School and later at East End Primary school. She insists that her first love is teaching and in fact she never gave up teaching, and has taught at the University of the Virgin Islands as an adjunct instructor for little over a decade and later at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

From her desk at the Attorney General’s Chambers where her job title is Legal Draftsperson/Crown Counsel, Aurjul shared her various adventures that led up to this day. The year she left Anguilla she was admitted to the University of the Virgin Islands as a freshman, spent one year, then transferred to Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri. Taking classes at the University of Missouri simultaneously, she completed her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice Administration with minors in psychology and business in 3 instead of the conventional 4 years. After graduating magna cum laude she took one year off to intern at the Justice Department on St. Thomas. The following year she was accepted to Thurgood Marshal School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston Texas. Upon graduation from law school Aurjul assumed the role of judicial law clerk to the Honorable Judge Henry C. Smock for two years. Following that, she joined the Department of Law as a prosecutor. Years later she took leave and enrolled at the University of the West Indies at Mona Campus to pursue the transitional course that would allow her to practice law in the Eastern Caribbean territory. “Being an American trained lawyer who has practiced in civil and criminal courts it is a challenge to differentiate the subtleties like spelling, syntax, punctuation and a multitude of other things and to unlearn some of the customs, habits and procedures of the foreign jurisdiction” she says. For five years she officiated as the Director of the Virgin Islands Paternity and Child Support Division before she accepted a position with the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General with the Civil Division/ Federal Programs Branch in Washington DC. At the pinnacle of her American legal career Aurjul made the decision to resign her post and return to Anguilla.

Her quiet demeanor belies the robust passionate strong willed individual whose source of strength seems to emanate from within. She credits the success of her assimilation in the community to a tight knit group of friends that assist in the orientation and adaptation which facilitate a smoother transition. An avid golfer, and an aspiring fisherman, she enjoys writing, photography and thinks that education of the masses on current issues is the key to sound decision making in local as well as global matters.

It has been one year now that Angёle H.Wilson (Aurjul), returned to Anguilla, and to quote her “it’s been an adjustment in more ways than one, however, despite the various challenges I am happy to be back home”. Some twenty years prior, Aurjul, her parents along with the rest of her siblings migrated to the US Virgin Islands. As a young adult she was a primary school teacher who started out at the Road Primary School where Dizzy (on his way to and from work in Blowing Point) dropped her off and picked her up until her transfer to Island Harbour Primary School and later at East End Primary school. She insists that her first love is teaching and in fact she never gave up teaching, and has taught at the University of the Virgin Islands as an adjunct instructor for little over a decade and later at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

From her desk at the Attorney General’s Chambers where her job title is Legal Draftsperson/Crown Counsel, Aurjul shared her various adventures that led up to this day. The year she left Anguilla she was admitted to the University of the Virgin Islands as a freshman, spent one year, then transferred to Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri. Taking classes at the University of Missouri simultaneously, she completed her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice Administration with minors in psychology and business in 3 instead of the conventional 4 years. After graduating magna cum laude she took one year off to intern at the Justice Department on St. Thomas. The following year she was accepted to Thurgood Marshal School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston Texas. Upon graduation from law school Aurjul assumed the role of judicial law clerk to the Honorable Judge Henry C. Smock for two years. Following that, she joined the Department of Law as a prosecutor. Years later she took leave and enrolled at the University of the West Indies at Mona Campus to pursue the transitional course that would allow her to practice law in the Eastern Caribbean territory. “Being an American trained lawyer who has practiced in civil and criminal courts it is a challenge to differentiate the subtleties like spelling, syntax, punctuation and a multitude of other things and to unlearn some of the customs, habits and procedures of the foreign jurisdiction” she says. For five years she officiated as the Director of the Virgin Islands Paternity and Child Support Division before she accepted a position with the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General with the Civil Division/ Federal Programs Branch in Washington DC. At the pinnacle of her American legal career Aurjul made the decision to resign her post and return to Anguilla.

Her quiet demeanor belies the robust passionate strong willed individual whose source of strength seems to emanate from within. She credits the success of her assimilation in the community to a tight knit group of friends that assist in the orientation and adaptation which facilitate a smoother transition. An avid golfer, and an aspiring fisherman, she enjoys writing, photography and thinks that education of the masses on current issues is the key to sound decision making in local as well as global matters.

Angele Wilson