PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Charmaine Chien-Yu Chui has achieved another milestone at only 19 years old, becoming the youngest person to ever graduate from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

This week, Chui received her Juris Doctorate and earned one of the highest number of pro bono hours in her graduating class: 182.

“Anything you do, it’s always going to be hard work,” Chui said. “It’s going to take intentional effort to move forward and achieve the goals you set for yourself.”

A Los Angeles native, Chui was homeschooled by her mom in second grade.

“During that time, I was just at home,” she recalled. “My mom would enroll me in a bunch of classes in standard subjects: English, math, history, some science.”

And when her friends were entering middle school, Chui graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, at the age of 16 with dual degrees in psychology and criminal justice before deciding to go to law school.

She credits her teachers and classmates who have helped her along the way.

“I was never treated as the youngest law student or the person who would become the youngest law graduate. My classmates always treated me as an equal, as a peer,” Chui said. “I feel like my professors were just as invested in my success as they were in the success of any of my other classmates.”

In the fall, Chui will take on her new role as a judicial law clerk at the Arizona Supreme Court with Justice James P. Beene. She hopes her story will encourage other teens to pursue their dreams and never give up no matter the limits.

“If it interests you, it’s important for you to go and apply because you never know what could happen,” Chui said.

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