Like many students, I was overwhelmed going directly from high school to a large university. My first year of college at the University of Florida proved incredibly difficult. I ended up back in Tampa before having completed my first year. For someone used to getting good grades, my unexceptional performance was disrupting. It turned out to be for the best. HCC, with small class sizes and attentive professors, gave me the opportunity to raise my GPA and become a more focused student before transferring to the University of South Florida where I graduated with a degree in Political Science. I then went to Stetson University College of Law and graduated cum laude with a J.D. I worked as an attorney for twenty-four years, and for the last thirteen years, have served as a bankruptcy judge. HCC helped me find focus and in the long run, success.
Judge McEwen has been reappointed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to a second 14-year term, commencing August 22, 2019.