(Photo courtesy of Rachel Schulte)
By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
An Intellectual Property Fellow and a 1L at Detroit Mercy Law School, Muskegon native Rachel Schulte graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a bachelor’s in physics and a double minor in mathematics and leadership.
After graduation, she worked as a Patent Classification Specialist for Clarivate that had a contract with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Her role was to put codes on patent documents based on the technical information included—for example, a camera and a semiconductor chip would have different codes.
“I enjoyed being able to read all the inventions and the improvements they were going to make to society,” she says. “Working in this role helped me affirm my decision to want to go into patents.”
While her older sister Rebecca Dembinski, an attorney in the metro Detroit area, had a lot to do with Schulte considering law, she made the decision to pursue law when she realized she could combine her passions in a career field.
“Rebecca was the one who originally got me thinking about law school, mentioning my scientific background may be a good fit for patent law,” she says. “After doing some research on the field, I agreed and took a few years to gain some experience working with patents.
“I always thought I would have to choose. The drive to give back to the community was instilled in me from a young age, but I was also good at the STEM subjects. When I realized I could use my talents in STEM and better society though patent law, I knew I had found a career where I did not have to ‘pick a side’ so to speak.”
Schulte is looking forward to immersing herself in the community at Detroit Mercy Law.
““I’m honored to be selected for the IP Law fellowship and start my law school journey. I’m looking forward to involving myself in the law school community and give back to the community that has already given me so much.”
Schulte notes she has a wonderful support system, starting with Jacob, her husband of a little over three years, who holds a master’s degree in chemistry. She inherited her love of science and math from her father, David Dembinski, an engineer in the automotive industry. Her mother, Gale, works for Girl Scouts, and instilled Schulte’s drive to give back to her community.
Schulte enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, hiking around metro parks, and state parks, and has been on a couple of backpacking trips to Isle Royale with her father.
Believing it is important to give back to what helped shape you as a person, Schulte most recently served as volunteer finance adviser for her old sorority chapter, Zeta Alpha Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. In addition to holding various leadership roles in the sorority during undergrad, she was drawn to the philanthropic focus of fighting hunger.
Schulte has happy memories of her involvement in Girl Scouts from kindergarten through her high school senior year.
“Not only was I able to participate in trips and experiences that broadened my worldview, but I was also provided with ample opportunity to give back to the community,” she says. “Looking back, I’m really thankful I had an environment that taught me women can do anything they put their mind to. Growing up in that type of environment gave me the confidence to be able to major in physics, a predominately male field.”
Schulte is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts and a Gold Award recipient, and the project she completed during senior year of high school focused on raising awareness on the importance of spaying and neutering pets and creating educational resources on that topic.
“With the pandemic, it’s been hard to get involved as a volunteer in person with Girl Scouts as much as I’d like to, but I make sure to stop every time I see a cookie booth or other fund-raiser they have going to support their mission,” she says.
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