Metcalf Cup and Prize: Past Awardees

2026 Metcalf Cup and Prize Recipient

Julie Dahlstrom

School of Law

Julie A. Dahlstrom has been a leading clinical professor at the School of Law since she joined BU in 2012. Inside the classroom and in her role as Associate Dean of Experiential Education, Professor Dahlstrom focuses on cultivating confidence, critical reflection, and intentionality in students while empowering them to develop excellent lawyering skills.

Professor Dahlstrom’s core pedagogical framework is “practice, perform, do, reflect” in a continuous cycle that engages students in intentional patterns to build and improve growth-mindsets and promote continuous improvement. Using a non-directive supervision approach, Professor Dahlstrom empowers students to problem-solve and explore their own questions, fostering autonomy, critical thinking, and a deep sense of ownership over their legal work and potential as future attorneys. This approach extends to feedback as well, where she guides students through self-assessment to articulate their challenges and to propose solutions to prepare them to be more effective, self-directed, and reflective practitioners.

Through thoughtfully engaging students in critical professional training and the practical skills needed as future attorneys, Professor Dahlstrom challenges students to look beyond the traditional automatic application of the law while promoting the confidence needed to apply it. As one student noted in an evaluation, “Professor Dahlstrom is an inspiration…for her ability to foster growth by both challenging and supporting clinical students.”