Followed her dream from grade school to law school

As a student at Landing Elementary School in Glen Cove, Shanise O'Neill dressed in a small suit and tie on Halloween. Instead of being a witch or ghost, she went trick-or-treating as a lawyer.

Inspired by a television show, she said she knew in third or fourth grade that was what she wanted to be. Now, O'Neill is coming up on her third year as an assistant district attorney in Queens Criminal Court, where she prosecutes misdemeanors.

"I like to argue and I like to talk," she said, standing in her suit and high heels outside the Queens courthouse on a recent morning. "This is the perfect job for me."

O'Neill, 27, is one of many family members who attended Glen Cove public schools. She still lives in the small city. In her Class of 2000 yearbook, O'Neill said she was going to be a lawyer, going to have a son and going to be married.

She is engaged to be married in April. A friend from kindergarten is in her wedding party. And she has a son, Cartier Funderburke, 10, who attends Landing.

"I love that I get to go back," she said.

She took electives in high school that she said helped prepare her for her legal career, including criminal justice, trial and debate, and public speaking.

Her mother helped raise her son while O'Neill was in her last year in high school and again when she went to St. John's University. She has known her fiance, Cartier's father, Charles Funderburke of Westbury, since the ninth grade.

"Even after having my son in high school, it was not going to deter me from what I was going to do," O'Neill said. "I didn't take any time off between high school and college. It feels good to know I accomplished exactly what I wanted to do."