Diana Morales-Bories ’96 JD credits the UConn School of Law with equipping her the with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the legal profession.
“It’s thanks to UConn that I have the career I have,” says Morales-Bories, who serves as vice president and general counsel, Refrigeration and WHQ Contracts, at Carrier Global Corp. “It gave me the skills I need to be a good lawyer.”
At UConn, Morales-Bories connected with classmates who would become lifelong friends and explored opportunities such as the School of Law’s study abroad program, spending a semester in Leiden, The Netherlands that she describes as an “unbelievable experience.”
She also found faculty members who were willing to provide extra support when she needed it, particularly with her writing skills. Morales-Bories, who is from Puerto Rico, says that while she is fluent in both English and Spanish, she hadn’t had a lot of practice writing in English prior to law school.
“Law school is where you’re really diving in with analytical thinking and writing,” she says. “I got a lot of support from faculty, which was critical. Now writing is one of my strongest skills.”
Morales-Bories was recruited by United Technologies (UTC) and began working right after law school. She enjoyed a long career with the company until Carrier spun off from UTC in 2020, and credits UConn with her introduction to UTC in the first place.
“I found out about UTC through the law school, since UTC heavily recruits from UConn,” she says. “I always think of UConn as the reason I was able to have the opportunity to connect with UTC.”
Now Morales-Bories wants to share her success to help future generations of legal minds access these types of opportunities. In honor of her 25th anniversary of graduating law school and the School of Law’s centennial, she established the Diana Morales-Bories ’96 Endowed Scholarship Fund, which provides support for law students with financial need.
“It was thanks to financial support that I was able to complete law school, and it has always been in the back of my mind that it would be nice to pay it forward,” she says. “An endowed scholarship will benefit a lot of students over a long period of time, and those students could go on to make big changes in the law and make big differences in people’s lives.”
“The law school is very grateful to Ms. Morales-Bories for establishing the Diana Morales-Bories ’96 Endowed Scholarship Fund, which furthers the law school’s values of accessibility and affordability,” says Eboni S. Nelson, dean of the School of Law. “Thanks to her generosity, students will be provided invaluable support to pursue their dreams of obtaining a legal education to be of service to others.”
Morales-Bories is happy to be able to help the school that had such an influence on her life. She also recently joined the board of the Law School Alumni Association, where she hopes to make an impact by bringing her own experience in the business and corporate environment to help inform the school’s thinking about how it prepares students to go out into the world.
“I was given a lot of opportunities and I feel very fortunate. Positive experience is really a waste unless you do something with it,” Morales-Bories says. “Creating this scholarship and participating on the Law School Alumni Association board are ways for me to channel the energy and inspiration I feel.”
