It is often said the pursuit of knowledge is never-ending.

For Jackson Superior Court I Judge AmyMarie Travis, she took an opportunity to further her never-ending journey of knowledge in order to better serve her community.

“I am a person that has always believed in continued learning and education,” she said. “I don’t believe you are ever done learning.”

Travis recently was recognized for participating in the Indiana Graduate Program for Judges. It’s a limited attendance education experience for appellate and trial level judicial officers that offers an in-depth and intensive learning experience and requires attendees to commit to one week of coursework for two consecutive summers.

Twenty-three judicial officers received an Indiana Judicial College certificate, 31 were recognized by participating in the two-year/two-week Indiana Graduate Program for Judges and six were honored for years of service on the bench. The accolades were presented at an annual judicial conference.

Travis said she was excited to have this opportunity because it is a rather intense course that would challenge her.

“Not a lot of people get the opportunity to go because it is an extensive application process,” she said. “Another neat thing about the program is that it didn’t cost Jackson County anything. It is something the Indiana Supreme Court solely pays for.”

Travis spent a week in the summers of 2022 and 2023 dedicated to learning and having a deeper understanding of complex issues within different areas of law.

She traveled to French Lick, where she was met with long days spent learning in classes with professors and other judicial officers.

“My first day that I was there, we were there from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The second day and third day, we got out at 3 p.m. to have some study time. The fourth day, we had classes until 8 p.m., and then the final day, we would take tests just like the same blue book tests back in law school,” she said. “Taking the tests was interesting because I haven’t taken a test since the bar exam, which this year will be 30 years ago.”

Travis said the tests at the end of the program might have been the most challenging part.

“It was intense from a learning perspective, and of course as a judge, I generally have a fair amount of time to research issues and to thoughtfully put down my orders,” she said. “But when you are taking a two-hourlong blue book test, I had to digest a rather complex situation and then write an answer to it fairly quickly. When you are given this kind of opportunity, you also want to excel.”

In the summer of 2022, some topics, such as criminal law dealing with higher issues of search and seizure and environmental law, were discussed.

Travis said she found the topic of environmental law to be interesting since she has had cases regarding environmental law end up in her court.

“One way environmental law could come into my court is when I would need to review the decisions made by planning and zoning boards,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s addressing the issues of city or county planning or sometimes, it can involve environmental issues.”

She learned during the learning session that environmental is a complex issue that has a wide intersection between state, local and federal laws in which many of these laws in place have not have developed overtime.

In the summer of 2023, she studied free speech and the judicial role, international law and war crimes and health justice.

“We just covered a broad variety of topics with great professors teaching us,” she said. “We had Thomas Healy of Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey and Fred Cate of Maurer School of Law as professors, to name a few.”

Spending most of her nights during the week studying materials and committed to the coursework, she said now, she can bring back what she learned and serve her community more effectively.

“I think what I learned the most wasn’t really from any particular topic but an overall deeper understanding of the judicial process,” she said. “Learning how to effectively apply judicial process concepts to any topic, it can help you across the board in any case.”

Between her first and second summers in the program, Travis was appointed as a special judge for a case that made its way to the Indiana Supreme Court. She said during that time, she was able to apply the concepts she learned from her first summer and receive a ruling right before she went back for her final summer in the program.

“Any time I can learn more about my craft, then the better I can do in serving this county in the role that I have as judge,” she said. “It was an amazing experience and such a great eye-opener.”