{"id":15284,"date":"2023-12-21T11:28:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T16:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=15284"},"modified":"2023-12-21T11:28:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T16:28:19","slug":"california-teen-who-passed-bar-exam-at-17-becomes-practicing-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/california-teen-who-passed-bar-exam-at-17-becomes-practicing-attorney.html","title":{"rendered":"California Teen Who Passed Bar Exam at 17 Becomes Practicing Attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15290\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15290\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/peter-park-teen-lawyer-credit-abc7-youtube.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15290\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/peter-park-teen-lawyer-credit-abc7-youtube.png\" alt=\"peter park\" width=\"768\" height=\"498\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15290\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ABC7\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A teenager from California\u2019s Central Valley has become the youngest person ever to pass the state\u2019s bar exam and is now working as a practicing attorney. The Tulare County District Attorney\u2019s office announced that Peter Park learned at 17 that he had passed the \u201crigorous exam\u201d on his first attempt in what officials called a \u201clegal history-making moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park has been a law clerk with the office since completing law school. The teen started high school in 2019 when he was 13 and enrolled in a four-year law program at Northwestern California University School of Law at the same time. He was able to enroll due to a state bar rule allowing students to apply to law school after completing the College Level Proficiency Exams. In 2021, he completed his high school studies and then focused on law school, graduating in 2023, according to the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KT-QJnZW53U?si=po-RLjTtr3FR0RTk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He took the bar exam and then went to work for the district attorney\u2019s office. He received the results of his exam and learned he had broken a record. Before Park, the youngest person to pass the state bar was 18 years old. In a press release, he said, \u201cIt was not easy, but it was worth it. It required discipline and strategy to pass the bar, and I made it in the end. I am extremely blessed to have discovered this path, and my hope is that more people will realize that alternative paths exist to becoming an attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park, who turned 18 in late November, was sworn in as one of the state\u2019s youngest practicing attorneys, the DA\u2019s office said. California\u2019s bar exam is widely considered particularly challenging. In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/government\/californias-bar-pass-rate-dipped-515-bucking-upward-national-trend-2023-11-10\/\">July 2023<\/a>, 51.5% of the 7,555 people who took the exam passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A teenager from California\u2019s Central Valley has become the youngest person ever to pass the state\u2019s bar exam and is now working as a practicing attorney. The Tulare County District Attorney\u2019s office announced that Peter Park learned at 17 that he had passed the \u201crigorous exam\u201d on his first attempt in what officials called a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":15290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[2237],"class_list":["post-15284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-people","tag-peter-park"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>California Teen Who Passed Bar Exam at 17 Becomes Practicing Attorney<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Peter Park, a teenager from California who passed the bar exam at just 17 years old, recently started working as a practicing 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