Utahn Lisa Anne Grow is not only graduating first in her class at Harvard Law School, she is the first woman in the school's 180-year history to graduate summa cum laude.
When Grow is awarded her juris doctor degree during commencement exercises today, she also will be the first student in 15 years to graduate with the highest academic distinction. Grow's final grade point average hovers between an A and an A+.Grow, 23, earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Utah in three years, also graduating summa cum laude. She then spent a summer at the Harvard School of Divinity in an eight-week crash course in biblical Hebrew.
She earned perfect scores on her law school entrance exam and has twice received the Sears Prize, awarded annually to Harvard's top two law students during their two years of law school.
Grow, known on campus as the "summa girl," is the toast of the Ivy League school, said state Sen. Scott Howell, D-Granite. Howell recently was on the Harvard campus to teach at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
"When I was back there, it was so fun when people would come up to me and say, `You're from Utah? Do you know Lisa Grow?' It's kind of the buzz back there," he said. "People are just mesmerized by how humble she is. She's a normal person, in a sense, not a ditto head by any means."
Word of Grow's accomplishments reached Washington earlier this week, prompting a letter from Vice President Al Gore.
"Your success is an accomplishment not only for Utah but for the nation as a whole," Gore wrote.
Howell has known Grow for years. She has twice served as his legislative intern, once while she was a student at Brighton High School and a second time when she attended the U.
Upon meeting Grow, Howell said he was struck by her intelligence and hunger for knowledge. But he is equally impressed by her humanity and ability to analyze issues from differing perspectives.
When she traveled to Israel to study at Brigham Young University's Jerusalem Studies Center, Grow became deeply interested in the Arab perspective of the ages-old Middle East conflict. "Not too many people I know come away with that perspective," Howell said.
She will clerk for a federal appeals judge after graduating. A year later, she will be a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
A devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Grow said in a previous interview that she envisions returning to Utah. "I'm not planning on (a career) being an all-consuming part of my life. I plan to do good things with my law degree, but it won't be the focus of my life," Grow told the Associated Press recently.
Howell predicts Grow will be "very, very successful, a strong political figure in the state of Utah."
A Democrat, perhaps?
"I don't know about that," Howell conceded.
For now, Grow has become an unintentional ambassador for the Beehive State. "The Jazz have done a lot for Utah, but equally so, Lisa Grow has done a lot for state of Utah," Howell said.