After she got a behind-the-scenes look at the legal system with a group of Bowling Green High School freshmen Tuesday, Da’Mya Gray left the experience with more clarity about her career goals.

“I think I want to become a police officer,” Gray said. “They get to do a lot, and they get to help the community out with a lot of things. … They just do a lot for our community.”

Gray, along with nine other BGHS students, toured sites such as the Warren County Regional Jail and the Bowling Green Police Department Communications Center and met judges, attorneys and other legal professionals as part of the Legal Diversity Pipeline Project organized by the English Lucas Priest & Owsley law firm.

The project, which began last school year, grew out of conversations at ELPO about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the country’s legal system and the need to improve both in the local legal community.

“We wanted to come up with ways that we could improve upon that, and as part of those discussions we came up with the idea of the Legal Diversity Pipeline Project,” said Rebecca Simpson, a partner at ELPO. “We wanted to find a way to reach out to young people, especially young people from diverse backgrounds, and talk to them about the law enforcement and legal professions and how they might make a difference in our community.”

Tuesday’s field trip to the Warren County Justice Center continued an experience that Simpson said resonated with students last year.

ELPO employees stay in touch with students who took the field trip last year, and the firm is interested in offering internships and jobs to students in the future as they continue their education, Simpson said.

“We’re really hopeful that as they continue through their high school years and into college or beyond that this program will help foster their interest in the law and in the legal profession,” Simpson said, adding that students ideally will chose to pursue careers here in Bowling Green.

Students began the morning by hearing from Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton and then observed District Court Judge Brent Potter, who also shared a little about how he approaches his job.

“I think it’s very important that regardless of where you’re from, what you drive, what clothes you wear, whatever the case may be, that everybody is entitled to that same fundamental due process,” Potter said. He added that he sees his job as helping people make good choices and told students they can build successful lives by doing the same.

Students finished out their day by hearing from a panel of legal professionals, including Bowling Green attorney Carlos Bailey and ELPO employees.

Among them was Kenan Mujkanovic, a court runner for ELPO, who shared his dream of becoming an attorney and his story as the son of Bosnian refugees.

“Every opportunity that’s given to you, it’s up to you to make it as big as possible,” Mujkanovic said, encouraging students to push themselves. “The second that you are comfortable with your life is the same second that you will stop growing.”