{"id":13370,"date":"2026-10-02T08:15:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/?p=13370"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:26:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:26:40","slug":"helen-van-cleef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/2026\/10\/02\/helen-van-cleef\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Van Cleef"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Degree program:<\/strong> J.D.\/M.M.A. (dual degree with Roger Williams University School of Law)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Year accepted:<\/strong> 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Advisor:<\/strong> TBD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Background:<\/strong> B.A. Political Science, Minor Art History, Manhattan University<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Profile:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A native of Jamestown, Rhode Island, Helen Van Cleef (she\/her) spent her childhood around the Narragansett and Peconic Bays, the local marshes, and the ocean. During summers, she spent time at the Suffolk Project in Aquaculture Training in Long Island, NY, learning scallop and oyster aquaculture, and at the Save the Bay environmental camps, where she learned about ocean and marsh life. There, she cultivated her love and commitment to New England&#8217;s coastal waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Undergraduate studies at Manhattan University resulted in a Political Science degree and an Art History minor. After graduation, she began working at the Rhode Island Attorney General\u2019s Office, where, over two years, she helped with expungements and organized and digitized parole information as a Special Projects Manager. Helen was accepted into Roger Williams University (RWU) Law School in 2024 and is now in her third and final year. She is co-president of the Environmental Law Society, which helps educate students on environmental law issues through events such as a mock senate session at the Rhode Island State House and a sustainable chocolate event for Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Helen attended RWU Law School&#8217;s Coastal Resilience Law and Policy clinic in 2026. She worked with a local municipality on specific community environmental issues, aiming to provide feasible, practical solutions, such as incorporating rainwater gardens to mitigate damage from stormwater runoff. Through this clinic, she learned about the Marine Affairs Dual Degree Program between RWU Law School and URI, which lets her combine a law degree with an in-depth understanding of marine affairs to help her shape marine environmental policy in her future legal career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Degree program: J.D.\/M.M.A. (dual degree with Roger Williams University School of Law) Year accepted: 2026 Advisor: TBD Background: B.A. Political Science, Minor Art History, Manhattan University Profile: A native of Jamestown, Rhode Island, Helen Van Cleef (she\/her) spent her childhood around the Narragansett and Peconic Bays, the local marshes, and the ocean. During summers, she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":809,"featured_media":13371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[233,238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-graduate-students","category-ma"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13372,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions\/13372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}