Diana Korn (3L) has helped victims of domestic violence realize they can get help via resources such as UF Law's Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic, the first of its kind in the nation. (Photo by Vincent Massaro)

Nightmares like this.

A woman came to Korn battered and bruised, and her internal organs were injured from beatings. She feared for her life, her freedom, her future.

But telling the truth, talking with Korn, could mean certain death based on the laws of the country of her birth. Her future in America was bound by marriage to a visa held by her abuser.

Refuge from the beatings could only come from divorce. But divorce, for this woman, just wasn’t an option. Divorce, in her country, was grounds for death. And divorce in this country, was grounds for deportation.

So the beatings continued – until she couldn’t take it anymore, and until she came to Korn, a third-year law student at the Intimate Partner Violence Assistant Clinic (IPVAC) and certified legal intern.

“Being fatally abused is not farfetched (in her country),” Korn said “Women are property of their husbands.”

For this woman, IPVAC was her salvation, her freedom, her asylum. Korn was her guardian angel.

“Having this type of clinic available is lifesaving,” Korn said. “It really can mean life or death for the victim.”

Korn, who is completing her third semester in IPVAC, helped this particular nightmare become less grim. Korn, in her own words, helped to save this woman’s life.

Through her work with IPVAC, Korn helped the woman file for a political asylum visa so that her freedom in America would no longer be tied to her husband’s visa. Korn filed an injunction to keep the beatings at bay. And Korn helped the woman realize divorce wasn’t going to result in a perilous situation for her.

“She didn’t know this was an option,” Korn said. “She didn’t know (divorce) from her husband in America was possible.”

In conjunction with the College of Medicine, Shands Teaching Hospital and Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network, IPVAC provides legal assistance to victims of domestic violence while providing an array of counseling services.

“It’s sort of like a one-stop shop,” Korn said. “(We’re) giving victims the tools they need to stand on their own two feet and helping them realize they don’t deserve to be beaten.”

But both Teresa Drake, IPVAC director, and Korn emphasize that not all cases are this horrific.

Drake is quick to mention IPVAC’s strengths as a legal clinic first, and a family law clinic second. IPVAC, she said, deals with many areas of the law, including injunction/family law, immigration law, international law and landlord/tenant law. Violence, she said, touches on every area of the law.

“The skills you learn in a clinic are transferable to any area of the law,” Drake said.

And the skills Korn is learning have roots more than 20 years deep.

Korn’s mother worked for more than 20 years as a Child Protection Team psychologist, advocating for physically, mentally and sexually abused children. For Korn, the skills she’s learning now were instilled long before law school.

“Representing victims in court gives my life purpose,” Korn said. “It’s my way of continuing my mother’s good work.”

Korn said she spends about 30 hours each week earning school credit in the clinic. And, for Korn, 30 hours isn’t nearly enough.

“It’s a lot, but when you’re doing such good, you don’t want to leave,” she said.

And the skills Korn is learning now, she said, have roots that will grow for years.

“I know now what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,” Korn said. “They’ve given me much more than I’ve given them in that sense.”

Drake, who isn’t bashful to praise the real-life work of her students in IPVAC, wants future clinic students to know the impact they can have not only on their clients but on themselves.

“Especially in this economy, these students are just so much more marketable,” she said. “People can’t afford to hire students and drop three, six, nine, 12 months training them.”

Noting IPVAC is the first-of-its-kind legal clinic in the country, Drake said her students are “learning to roll with the punches” in the real world of trials, judges and actual clients.

And for Korn, who is just one of 64 law students in the civil and criminal clinics offered by the UF College of Law this semester, according to program manager, Patti Williams, graduating in two months doesn’t scare her at all.

“I really believe I could graduate tomorrow and practice law,” Korn said. “(Clinics) could give your life purpose.”

Students who would like to apply for fall semester clinics are encouraged to apply by Friday’s deadline. Applications are available at: http://www.law.ufl.edu/centers/hawkins/students/index.shtml.

Michael Hacker (1L) co-founded RoomBug, a roommate-matching application built on the Facebook platform. He also started his own company at the age of 18. (Photo by Vincent Massaro)

The Securities and Exchange Commission was calling – about a job.

“He called for an (externship) interview on the spot, and I couldn’t really say ‘No,’” Hacker said. “I felt really bad.”

Such modesty might be expected of an ordinary person with ordinary ambitions, but Hacker (1L) is far from ordinary.

Hacker is one of only a handful of law students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law also pursuing his master’s degree in business administration.

But Hacker doesn’t stop there. Extraordinary requires much more.

Aside from simultaneously pursuing two professional degrees, Hacker is also a company cofounder and the president of a separate company he started in 2006 when he was 18.

“I like to keep busy. Otherwise, I get bored,” he said.

With two companies already under his belt before he hit his mid-20s and two professional degrees on the way in 2013, Hacker says that to be successful, you have to remain modest.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Markets change. Interests shift. To be successful, you have to remain modest, he said.

Especially when you start your own Internet and technology consulting company, Hacker Computers Corp., at the age of 18.

“It’s hard to gain credibility, but it’s important to keep working and maintain a professional standard for yourself,” Hacker said.

Though he started his own Internet and technology consulting company, Hacker Computers Corp., when he was 18, the reality for this idea came much earlier.

The seed of his idea started much earlier.

“I basically had a computer in front of me since I was 4,” Hacker said. “I was always interested in technology, and that’s what really got me started.”

This interest in technology is what helped bring Hacker’s second company to life.

Hacker, along with Alex Edelsburg, Ariel Himmelstern and fellow UF graduate Rob Castellucci, founded RoomBug, a roommate-matching application built on the Facebook platform.

Started in the summer of 2007, Hacker said Castellucci’s involvement in off-campus student housing spurred the idea. Hacker’s computer prowess helped the idea become reality.

Used by an estimated 20,000 people and 10 schools, including UF, RoomBug connects students in online Facebook communities through their residence halls or off-campus housing. After joining the desired network, users select their desired room cleanliness, noise level and other variables in hopes of finding the perfect roommate.

And that’s what RoomBug does, Hacker said. It allows for users to pick a roommate with whom they feel compatible. At least on Facebook.

“Facebook isn’t just a cover,” Hacker said. “It’s a living, breathing example of a person.”

RoomBug was named a Facebook Fund finalist in 2009, recognition as one the top 25 applications built on the Facebook platform, and Hacker expects even bigger business booms in 2011. As social media continues to grow in popularity and as the dread of being “thrown into” living with a horror-story-worthy roommate remains, RoomBug seems to be mushrooming into something bigger.

While some are surprised at RoomBug’s early success, others point to UF’s long history of entrepreneurial success stories as a roadmap for Hacker and other future inventors.

After all, this is the birthplace of Grooveshark and the homeland of Gatorade.

“We’ve always had phenomenal research coming out of the university,” said Jamie Kraft, UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation executive director.

But even with such incredible research, not every student starts his or her own company at the age of 18.

“There are a lot of students on this campus with their own businesses,” Kraft said. “Are they on Michael’s level? Maybe not.”

And for a student who started working at age 15 in a family printing shop – a student who founded two companies, a student who’s set to graduate in two years with two professional degrees – the future looks just as bright.

Hoping to become involved with corporate or business law in the future, Hacker figures his entrepreneurial background will help him along the way.

“Anytime you do anything, it’s entrepreneurial,” he said. “If you don’t create a place for yourself, nothing is going to come for you.”

Princeton professor and author Robert Socolow, co-creator of the "Stabilization Wedge Game," gave keynote remarks during PIEC. He has done recent work on high carbon emitters, carbon capture and storage, and biofuels. (Photo by Vincent Massaro)

“The era of cheap energy is coming to an end,” warned J. Peter Byrne, professor and director of the Center for Energy and Climate Policy at the University of Delaware, at the conference’s opening plenary. Byrne, a shareholder recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, addressed “U.S. Energy Obesity” and described ways society can reduce energy consumption.

The student-run conference continues to draw people from across the country, even in its 17th year. University of Florida Law Professor Alyson Flournoy credits the continued success to the conference’s reputation of having an interesting, broad agenda featuring a diverse group of speakers.

“Including speakers from government, NGOs, universities, and industry helps to broaden people’s perspectives,” Flournoy said.