 Sotomayor was born in The Bronx , New York City , to Puerto Rican @-@ born parents . Her father died when she was nine , and she was subsequently raised by her mother . Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979 , where she was an editor at the Yale Law Journal . She was an advocate for the hiring of Latino faculty at both schools . She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for four and a half years before entering private practice in 1984 . She played an active role on the boards of directors for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund , the State of New York Mortgage Agency , and the New York City Campaign Finance Board . 
