From Mercy Maverick to Trial Attorney:
Why Rose Harper Still Shows Up for Mercy University Students Every Semester
Every Thursday, Rose Harper trades her courtroom heels for a classroom and does something most successful attorneys never do: she goes back.
Back to the campus where she earned a full scholarship. Back to the halls where she first learned to articulate an argument with precision. Back to Mercy University in Dobbs Ferry, New York — the place that, in many ways, made her who she is. Since 2016, Rose Harper has served as an adjunct professor in the Communications Department at Mercy University, teaching Communications 101 to undergraduate students. She is not there for the paycheck. She is there because she remembers what it felt like to wonder whether her degree would actually take her somewhere — and she wants every student sitting in that room to know, with certainty, that it will.
A Full Ride, a 3.9 GPA, and a Spanish Language Degree
Rose Harper’s story at Mercy University did not start in a law library. It started on a volleyball court. Rose attended Mercy on a full-ride scholarship — half academic, half athletic — as a Division II volleyball player for the Mavericks. She brought the same intensity she showed on the court to the classroom, graduating summa cum laude in 2008 with a 3.9 GPA and a degree in Spanish Language.
Not pre-law. Not criminal justice. Spanish Language. That detail matters — and Rose knows it. Because one of the most common anxieties among humanities and communications students is the fear that their major won’t translate into a meaningful career. Rose’s trajectory is living proof that it does.
Her bilingual fluency has become one of her firm’s greatest professional assets. Rose Harper Law actively serves Spanish-speaking clients across New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, with a particular commitment to the growing Latinx community in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Her degree was not a detour. It was the foundation.
“I go back because I wish someone had shown me — not just told me — that a communications or Spanish degree could lead somewhere real. I am proof that it can. And if my being in that room helps even one student stop second-guessing themselves, it’s worth every minute.”
Why She Goes Back: Teaching Communications 101
For Rose, the classroom is not a side project. It is a form of advocacy — the same instinct that drives her to fight for injured clients drives her to fight for students who have not yet found their voice or their direction. Communications 101 is often one of the first college courses students take. Many of them are undeclared. Many are wondering whether they belong in college at all.
Rose meets them there — at that exact moment of uncertainty — and models something no syllabus can teach: that the skills you build in a communications classroom are the exact skills that win cases, build businesses, persuade juries, and change lives.
What Communications Skills Have to Do with Winning Cases
The connection between a communications degree and a successful legal career is not incidental — it is direct. Trial law is, at its core, a communications discipline. The ability to craft a compelling narrative, read an audience, adjust your message in real time, and speak with authority under pressure — these are the building blocks of effective courtroom advocacy.
Rose Harper has argued cases in front of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania courts. She has cross-examined witnesses, delivered opening statements, and negotiated high-stakes settlements. Every one of those moments called on skills she began developing long before she entered a law school classroom. Her students learn that early. And they remember it.
Building Rose Harper Law: The Professional Timeline
Rose did not follow a predictable path from a traditional background. She built her career the same way she built everything else: by showing up and outworking the room.
Graduated Summa Cum Laude (3.9 GPA) with a degree in Spanish Language while competing as a Division II athlete.
Earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) and began extensive work in personal injury litigation across the Tri-State area.
Returned to Mercy University's Communications Department, instructing undergrads every single semester.
Leads Rose Harper Law and stands as an active member of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys.
Mercy University: A Legacy Worth Returning To
The flagship Dobbs Ferry campus—where Rose played Division II volleyball and now teaches—sits on 66 scenic acres along the Hudson River. Mercy offers personalized, high-access education that draws leaders from all backgrounds.
*Designated as New York's largest private Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).
The Role Model in the Room
There is a well-documented gap between what students study and what they believe they can become. That gap is especially pronounced for first-generation students, student-athletes managing demanding schedules, and students from backgrounds where professional career paths feel abstract or inaccessible. Rose Harper closes that gap just by walking into the room.
She does not have to say, “You can become a lawyer with a Spanish degree.” She simply is one. Her presence at Mercy University is, in the truest sense, an investment in the next generation that pays no billable hours and demands nothing in return except the hope that her students will one day pay it forward.