Victoria Harmeyer, a South Texas 3L and president of the Women’s Law Society, admired legal work and its positive results even before she understood her dad’s career.
“My father is an attorney,” Harmeyer said. “Growing up, I didn’t understand what he did for a living, but I knew he was a superhero. He helped everyone he could — never saying he was too busy and always delivering on his promises. I knew he was able to help so many people because of his career, and I wanted to be just like him.”
Harmeyer grew up in the Sharpstown area of Houston. For much of her childhood, she was the only girl in the household, raised by her dad with her two older brothers. She always loved time with her family, often traveling to interesting places.
Though her father inspired her current career path, her mother was just as influential. She passed away when Harmeyer was eight, but made the most of the time she had with her only daughter.
“After she passed, I found out she had known about her fate a year earlier,” Harmeyer said. “In that year, she often told me how strong, intelligent and talented I was. She also emphasized the importance of education and shared her desire for me to attend St. Agnes Academy.”
St. Agnes, a competitive all-girls private school, was challenging, but Harmeyer was focused and determined. In middle school, she earned a place on the honor roll, joined the soccer and basketball teams, made the cheerleading squad and had perfect attendance.
“At St. Agnes Academy, I took my first mock trial class,” she said. “My dream of becoming an attorney was solidified from then on.”
Her home life made some transitions during her school years, with her dad remarrying, and Harmeyer was no longer the only girl in the blended family.
“I cannot emphasize enough how much of a blessing my stepmom has been in my life,” Harmeyer said. “It was a new adventure for both of us, but she has loved me unconditionally throughout the journey. As a full-time nurse and mother to four children, she exemplified the virtues of a strong-willed, hard-working and fiercely loving mother.”
While her mom and stepmom have been tremendously important in Harmeyer’s life, her friends stepped into a key support role once she was in law school at South Texas.
“Friendship and networking are incredibly important in general, but especially in law school,” she said. “I got involved with the Women’s Law Society (WLS) because of my friends’ interest in the group, and it is a tremendous community of strong, smart women.”
During Harmeyer’s second year at STCL Houston, the pandemic upended everything. She saw first-hand the efforts the group’s board members made to overcome the challenges and create opportunities for students to connect during a time of isolation.
Harmeyer joined the WLS board as a 3L, and more recently, she became president.
“Since the pandemic changed so much about the organization, I knew I was starting from scratch,” she said. “But I also knew the students of South Texas deserved all the things we had the power to offer: support, connection and friendship. My new board and I worked during the summer to plan our new structure, rewrite our bylaws, and make it one of the greatest organizations on campus.”
The Women’s Law Society currently has more than 100 members and hosts fitness classes, social events, panel speakers, educational seminars and other events.
In addition, the group organized a donation drive for the Houston Area Women’s Center and is currently assisting the Advancement office in revamping the “Friends Helping Friends” fund, which will make funds available for students with emergency needs, such as survivors of domestic abuse in the STCL Houston community.
With graduation on the horizon, Harmeyer hopes the work she and her fellow board members have put into revitalizing the WLS creates a strong foundation for its future impact at the law school. She plans to pursue a career in civil litigation but hasn’t settled on a specific field just yet.
Wherever she lands, the future attorney Harmeyer can become her own superhero.
