Getting the full picture of the legal field, from co-op to national scholarship.
“Northeastern’s been really great because I’ve been able to do 10,000 things at once,” said student Sophie Schmults.
When Northeastern University student Sophie Schmults found out that her co-op was going to be at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, she thought the work she’d do would involve her field of study, organized crime. So she was “a little taken aback” when she was assigned to the civil rights and human trafficking unit.
“I had no experience in that realm, and I wasn’t really sure what I was going to be dealing with,” Schmults said.
A year later, not only has Schmults figured out that prosecuting and preventing human trafficking is her life’s work, she has earned a prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship to help her continue on that mission. The scholarship recognizes college students who are dedicated to public service.
Even though she was unsure at the beginning of her co-op placement, “It really clicked for me,” Schmults said. “I’m very, very lucky that co-op let me have that experience and it all worked out for the best.
Schmults will graduate from Northeastern this December with a combined English and criminal justice major.
The co-op in New York is not the only way that the Rhode Island native has taken advantage of Northeastern’s opportunities. “Northeastern’s been really great because I’ve been able to do 10,000 things at once,” Schmults said.
Not quite 10,000, but Schmults’ involvement is extensive.
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She was a research assistant at Northeastern’s Center on Crime, Race, and Justice, working on a long-term study examining the mental health effects of working as a corrections officer. She volunteered in prisons with The Petey Green Program, teaching and preparing incarcerated individuals for their high school equivalency diploma.
Schmults did a Dialogue of Civilizations in Ireland after her first year at Northeastern.
She is also “very involved” in theater, both with the student Silver Masque Theatre Company, and the university’s theater department.
“I’m really grateful that I’ve been able to explore both my professional and personal interests here,” Schmults said.
In this varied group of experiences, her co-ops stand out, she said.
Schmults completed the co-op with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in Spring 2025, and this past spring did part-time co-ops at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization.
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“It’s really important to get the full picture of the criminal justice field,” Schmults said of the different placements.
Working in the civil rights and human trafficking unit at the US attorney’s office gave her quite a view. Among the cases that she helped the unit investigate were charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, but found guilty of prostitution offenses, and the Alexander brothers, prominent real estate brokers in New York convicted of multiple federal sex offenses.
“Getting to see both high profile cases and cases that don’t get that much attention, and the work that the attorneys do to get justice for the victims, really resonated with me,” Schmults said.
That dedication was also apparent in her application for the Truman Scholarship, for which Schmults had to submit a policy proposal. In it, she focused on updating and reforming policies for prosecuting transnational human trafficking crimes.
“Human trafficking looks very different now than it did even 10 years ago, especially with the rise of the internet,” Schmults said.
For example, Schmults said that some policies governing extradition — where one jurisdiction surrenders a person accused or convicted of a crime to the jurisdiction where the alleged offense occurred to face prosecution or serve a sentence — have not been updated in 20 years.
“I think it’s something that needs to be looked at again,” Schmults said.
Norair Khachatryan, an assistant teaching professor of criminology and criminal justice, was confident that Schmults would address the issues she identified.
“If there’s someone who can make a difference in terms of advancing policy if not outright implementing it, I think that’s Sophie,” said Khachatryan, who taught an organized crime class that Schmults was enrolled in. “I saw her as an innovator, a forward-thinking and caring student in terms of not just learning the material but actually wanting to change things for the better.”
Meanwhile, Schmults is returning to the U.S. Attorney’s Office as a paralegal in January.
She isn’t sure if she’ll continue to focus on human trafficking as she doesn’t yet know which unit she’ll be assigned to. But this time, she’s prepared for anything.
“I think I’ll be happy regardless of where I am because I really appreciate how victim-focused that office is,” Schmults said. “I really respect that.”
