Student Profile
Resiliency and
RESOLVE BY DESTRY HOLZSCHUH
Kaden Peebles signs her book, “One True Scrapper: A Memoir of Childhood Cancer, Good Eyeliner, and a Fighting Spirit” at a recent book signing.
First year law students in Kaden Peebles’ class celebrate the conclusion of their first year at OCU School of Law.
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Oklahoma City University
There’s no question that law school is tough, but Kaden Peebles has some experience in overcoming tough circumstances. As a teenager in southwest Arkansas, she was living a regular life as a high school cheerleader in a small town before she was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma her junior year. Peebles would spend the rest of that year and most of her senior year doing chemotherapy and radiation treatment before reaching remission and graduating high school in good health. Less than two months into college, Peebles was diagnosed with cancer again—this time leukemia caused by her previous cancer treatments. She restarted chemotherapy and underwent a bone marrow transplant before reaching remission. A year later, the leukemia relapsed, and she did it all over again. After all of that, Peebles was able to graduate from the University of Central Arkansas and started thinking about law school. For her, going through cancer treatments and frequently being the youngest person in rooms full of doctors helped her learn to advocate for herself and taught her that she wanted to use those skills to advocate for others. That will to be a voice for those who needed it led her to OCU’s School of Law. “I love it here,” she explained. “I didn’t have a traditional college experience, so I’ve really enjoyed getting to have this law school experience.” In the thick of the second semester of her 1L year, Peebles was spending the end of her spring break working on her 1L appellate brief when she learned her younger brother Andrew had been in an accident, and she needed to rush home to Arkansas. She was able to make it home in time to be with her family when her brother died. After Andrew’s celebration of life, she returned to law school to finish the semester. “I cannot imagine not being in law school during this time of grief because it’s given me something to focus on,” Peebles said. “And, I’ve had such an amazing support system.” She now serves as president of her 2L class and is weighing internships and studying abroad for her post-2L summer. She also recently published a book about her story: “One True Scrapper: A Memoir of Childhood Cancer, Good Eyeliner, and a Fighting Spirit.” As for after law school, Peebles says she is drawn to criminal law and feels that the traumatic experiences she’s been through in her life will give her a unique ability to empathize with clients, and her goal to advocate for others remains at the forefront. “They hopefully make me more understanding of other people’s hard experiences.”
