Oché Harris

Oché was the third child in her family to participate with Chicago Lights Tutoring, and she remembers loving everything from the meals served each week (“not at all like lunch food from school—I’m a foodie”) to the extracurricular activities (“there was dance and computer lab and art, which was the most fun…and I played the piano once!”) to the reading program (“I’ve always been a reader, and I loved that we could choose treats with our reading tokens”). She was involved with Tutoring from first grade through her junior year of high school in person, before the covid pandemic moved things to Zoom when she was a senior.

Oché began high school in Lincoln Park, but ultimately graduated from Highland Park High School in 2021. Still, she took the train every Tuesday evening back into the city to attend Tutoring. “I have so many memories of things that impacted me for the better,” she says. “I look back on that time as a tutee and mentee as very important.”

She had a few different tutors over the years, and is particularly fond of Vanessa Tiradentes, who was her tutor during high school and continued with Oché’s little brother after Oché graduated. “She was very dedicated,” Oché explains. The two remain in touch even now.

Oché credits her Career Development summer internship at the Archdiocese’s office with helping her learn a lot about herself and her passion for history. And Vanessa was an attorney—as were her previous tutors, Becky and Jeremy, who alternated weeks working with Oché because of their demanding schedules. So when it came time to think about what she might study in college, Oché chose English and history, things she knew she loved and would also segue nicely into law school.

In May 2025, she graduated from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with a 3.9 GPA. “I had worked three jobs all four years and added another in the summer,” she says. She also had a full-ride scholarship, so she worked—as an RA, at her dorm’s front desk, and in the school’s career center—mostly to gain experience. “Sometimes I was homesick, so I wanted to help others not feel that way,” she says. “UIUC is a huge school, so I made an active effort to shrink the pond, to prove I wasn’t an impostor and that I was meant to be there.”

And meant to be there she was. Oché’s parents and two older brothers had started college, but weren’t able to finish, so Oché is the first in her family to earn a degree. “I’m most proud of my academic achievement,” she says. And she’s particularly proud to have finished without debt. “It isn’t easy to go to college, and it’s costly. I’m in a privileged place that I was able to take that burden off my family and focus on my studies.”

NOW, Oché is maximizing her opportunities to do legal work as a fellow for the Illinois Justice Corps, a partnership between Americorps, the Illinois Bar Foundation, and the Chicago Bar Foundation. “The Justice Corps offers a service where fellows provide filing help to people representing themselves in civil matters,” she explains. “We can’t give legal advice, but we help them get information and understand it and file important documents. People come in with small claims or divorces or evictions, and we help both parties.” She adds that she’s getting tons of great experience and has decided she does not want to pursue family law.

But other aspects of the law remain fascinating to her, so she’s studying for the LSAT during her fellowship. And she remains a careful and practical planner. “I would like to step into the private sector of law and get experience there before I make any decisions about law school,” she says. “I like to be proactive and have the information I need beforehand.”

If the right opportunity to add to her experience comes along, that will extend the time between college and law school for her. “Otherwise, I would love to go to Duke,” she confesses. “That’s the dream.”

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