BATON ROUGE - Southern University Law Center was recently ranked as the second best law school for African-Americans by preLaw Magazine. 

The article determined the best schools by grading each institution on three data points. These included the percentage of students in each ethnic group, the percentage of minority law professors, and diversity services offered by the school. 

The magazine sat down with Nicole Okeke-Oraeki, a Houston-native who went to undergrad at Howard University in Washington D.C. before making her way to Columbia University in New York for a graduate degree in psychology and is now a student at Southern Law.

Okeke-Oraeki told preLaw Magazine she was once pulled over by police because her windows were tinted.

As she described the experience, Okeke-Oraeki said 'that's just the way it is for African Americans,' and explained that this incident contributed to her decision to focus on criminal law. 

After graduating in May, Okeke-Oraeki will join the Philadelphia district attorney's office as an assistant district attorney. 

She said Southern University Law Center has been a unique experience that opened the door to numerous personal connections. 

One of the first things she noticed about the student body was its cultural diversity.

"Southern University is different," she said, "The students pretty much all come from the same backgrounds. Their skin colors may be different, but everyone has had similar experiences." 

She also spoke highly of the school's diverse faculty, saying, "it's wonderful and heartwarming," particularly when women of color are leading the classes.

"It's encouraging to see," she said. "Maybe that's me one day. It's wonderful to see people of color in such high places." 

Okeke-Oraeki, who is the school's student bar association president, eventually wants to become a U.S. senator.