By Tyler Ellyson
UNK Communications
Most people have probably never heard of Marsland, Nebraska.
The unincorporated community is a bit of a ghost town, with just a few buildings and residents remaining.
That’s where Arielle Lawrence grew up, near the Niobrara River in southwest Dawes County.
“It was just me, my grandparents and a few other families,” said Lawrence, who attended school in Hemingford, about 20 miles from her home.
Raised by her grandparents since she was 6 months old, Lawrence wasn’t able to do much traveling as a youth. But that didn’t prevent her from thinking beyond her community.
She’s always strived to help others and pursue opportunities that broaden her perspective and push her outside her comfort zone.
“Growing up in western Nebraska, it’s hard to get your voice out there. And I want to make sure that all of Nebraska has an opportunity to have their voice heard,” said Lawrence, who participated in the Girls State government education program as a high schooler and graduated as valedictorian. She also competed in the Miss Nebraska’s Teen pageant, using the platform to promote youth empowerment.
AMAZING OPPORTUNITIES AT UNK
In fall 2023, Lawrence enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she’s double majoring in political science and history with minors in public law and global peace and security. She’s part of the Kearney Law Opportunities Program (KLOP), a partnership with the University of Nebraska College of Law that recruits and trains students who will serve rural Nebraska as attorneys.
“When I came here, I really didn’t know anybody else on campus. I was in a new environment, five hours away from home, so that was challenging,” Lawrence said. “The opportunities available through the KLOP program and political science really helped me build that community and make connections with my classmates.”
During her second semester at UNK, Lawrence and several other political science students traveled to Cuba as part of a field study course led by professor Will Aviles. That trip allowed them to learn more about the country’s history, culture and politics, as well as its complex relationship with the U.S.
“If someone would have told me I’d be going to Cuba during my first year in college, I would have looked at them and said, ‘You’re crazy.’ But I went there, and I would go back in a heartbeat,” said Lawrence, who’s interested in international law and human rights. “The people were so kind, and I learned so much about the country. That’s something I could never get from a textbook or assignment.”
In January, Lawrence was part of another “absolutely amazing” opportunity when she participated in a field study course for KLOP members that focuses on the Holocaust and international criminal law.
Led by professor Chuck Rowling, the two-week trip took them to Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Netherlands, where they visited sites such as the Krakow-Plaszow and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps, Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory and the Palace of Justice, where the Nuremberg trials were held. They also went to the International Court of Justice in The Hague and met with officials at the International Criminal Court and Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which have jurisdiction over modern-day war crimes and crimes against humanity.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN ACTION
Still just a sophomore, Lawrence completed her third field study course last month, when 20 political science students traveled to Washington, D.C., to experience the federal government firsthand.
The one-week trip included a networking event where they met with UNK alumni who work in the nation’s capital, as well as one-on-one meetings with other NU graduates currently employed by federal agencies. They also spoke with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and visited with Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Adrian Smith at the Capitol, where they saw Congress in action.
Lawrence had been to Washington before for Model United Nations, but this trip was much different.
“With everything that’s going on in our political environment today, it’s very interesting to see how things work from the inside,” she said. “I would have never guessed that I would get to actually sit down and talk to Sen. Deb Fischer or Congressman Adrian Smith and hear their opinions on what’s going on. Having that firsthand experience really shaped how I think about the political landscape and the policies they’re making.”
Fellow UNK sophomore Bailey Tjaden agrees.
“With the current administration, objectively, there are a lot of things going on that people haven’t seen before – you have tariffs, you have immigration policies and you have all these different orders that are being introduced at a rate we’ve never seen before,” Tjaden said. “I’m not saying it’s good or bad, I’m just saying there’s a lot of change we’ve never seen before, and it’s very interesting to be in D.C. and hear the different opinions about it.”
“I was actually surprised at how moderate everyone we spoke to was,” she added. “Everybody had these moderate views of how the presidency is going, and that’s refreshing. It was very refreshing to hear opinions that are in the middle – they could see both sides.”
Led by professor Peter Longo, the D.C. experience also included meetings with representatives from a high-ranking law firm, the National Science Foundation, ACLU and Estonian Embassy, along with a stop at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Plus, the UNK group volunteered at the DC Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that delivers more than 16,000 meals a day to those in need.
“Dr. Longo made sure our schedule was full. We were running everywhere. It was so busy and amazing – I loved it,” said Tjaden, who’s studying political science and Spanish.
A total of five UNK political science students plan to complete internships in Washington this summer, including Lawrence, who will work in Congressman Smith’s office. She interned for Dawes County Court Judge Aaron Conn last summer and serves as the youth engagement coordinator for the Snow-Redfern Foundation, an Alliance-based nonprofit that focuses on empowering youth and inspiring the next generation of leaders.
THE BEST POLITICAL SCIENCE PROGRAM
Tjaden is currently interning with the Jacobsen Orr law firm in Kearney.
A native of York, where her father is the chief of police, she’s always been interested in politics, current events and the legal system.
“I’m very grateful that I was able to travel a lot with my family,” she said. “My parents always taught us that it’s important to understand how the rest of the world works, so they really wanted to get us out of our shell and explore different parts of the world. That exposed me to so much diversity and a different environment than what you see in rural Nebraska.”
Tjaden decided to focus on a law career after receiving some feedback from her mother.
“I didn’t really know what I was going to do with my life until senior year of high school, when my mom basically told me, ‘You know what? You’re good at arguing. Maybe this is something you should consider,’” she said with a laugh.
A recipient of the prestigious Board of Regents Scholarship and member of the KLOP program, Tjaden chose UNK because the political science department offers opportunities she couldn’t get at other schools.
Like Lawrence, she participated in the KLOP trip to Europe earlier this year. As a freshman, she was part of a one-week field study course that took KLOP members to the Southern U.S. to learn about the politics and law of the Civil Rights Movement.
“I think UNK has the best political science program in the state,” Tjaden said. “I thought about going to UNL, but their program is just not like the one at UNK. It’s very personal, very one-on-one here. It gives you everything you need to be successful in law school and beyond.”