Laura Provinzino '98

When asked by the Pioneer Log where she’d be at age 40, then-senior Laura Provinzino listed goals that included working in human rights law and holding a policy-making position, “whether as an academic or in politics.” She was already well on her way. She’d won a Barbara Hirschi Neely Scholarship and a Ben B. Cheney Foundation Scholarship. She’d been elected to the Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society of Fellows and named to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She’d completed a summer internship with Senator Paul Wellstone, who described her skills and character as exceptional. She was chairing the College Honor Board, editing the Meridian, participating in a number of sports, and volunteering at a homeless shelter.

Oh, and she’d just become the first student in Lewis & Clark history to be named a Rhodes Scholar.

The unassuming Provinzino is quick to credit others. “I was blessed to have such dedicated, inspirational, and scholarly professors during my time at Lewis & Clark. Many of them are friends today.” She earned a B.A. in history and international affairs, both with honors, and went on to receive a B.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford’s Balliol College in 2000.

Energetic as well as brilliant, Provinzino promptly set off again, this time to attend Yale Law School. There, she involved herself in the Workers Rights Project and the Pro Bono Challenge and cowrote the Quality of Life Survey adopted by the Association for Legal Career Professionals. After receiving her J.D. in 2003, she served as a law clerk for Judge Diana E. Murphy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Remaining focused on her priorities, Provinzino next joined Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights as, fittingly enough, Wellstone Legal Fellow. She designed and implemented monitoring projects at the volunteer-based nonprofit organization to assess the impact of 9/11 on Minnesota’s refugee, immigrant, and religious minority communities, and to assess human rights violations against the ethnic Oromo of Ethiopia.

“I try to apply several lessons learned at Lewis & Clark to my daily life,” she says. “Expect the unexpected. Approach a problem from all angles and in a multidisciplinary way. Be ready to challenge yourself and others.”

Provinzino shows no signs of slowing down. She was recently named a litigation associate at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi’s Minneapolis offices and is a member of the Hennepin County Bar Association’s Mentorship Program. In spite of her busy professional schedule, she also finds time to organize numerous Lewis & Clark alumni gatherings and regularly volunteers on behalf of the College’s admissions department.

(Posted May 2006)