2L student Cooper Rodgers selected for prestigious Wyss Scholars Program

“The West is where I was born, where I was raised, and where I plan to live out the rest of my life. It is my home.”

In early Fall 2017, the Wyss Foundation selected Lewis & Clark and its Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law program as one of the first law schools to be included in the Wyss Scholars Program. The Wyss Foundation is a private, charitable organization dedicated to western public lands issues, and its Scholars Program supports graduate-level education for the next generation of leaders in western land conservation. JD students in their second year at Lewis & Clark who are interested in natural resources and public lands issues on western lands, may apply to serve as Wyss Scholars.

Lewis & Clark is pleased to announce that Cooper Rodgers is the inaugural Wyss Scholar at Lewis & Clark Law School. Cooper grew up in Southern California, specifically in the Santa Monica area. The memorable moments of his childhood include spending time in the Santa Monica Mountains, and viewing Red-Tailed Hawks, Mule Deer, and Coast Live Oak. His relationship to the land led him to learn about the need to conserve and preserve those special places. In high school, he started an internship with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and started working in public land conservation.

“Meaningful public service became my long-term career goal. During college I majored in Environmental Science, but came to realize that the hardest battle for our environment is in the courtroom.”

While at Lewis & Clark Law School, Cooper has volunteered with the Natural Resources Defense Council, externed with Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and participated in the Earthrise Law Center clinic. He is also pursuing the Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Certificate. Like so many students interested in environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School, Cooper is deeply involved in the many academic, experiential, and clinical opportunities the Environmental Law Program has to offer.

“The incredible opportunities I have had to do substantial legal work have shown me that public interest conservation law is my home. My work has shown me places in the West I once never knew existed, but now are part of my identity.”

Lewis & Clark’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy law program is proud to work with the Wyss Foundation in cultivating students, like Cooper, who will be the leaders and change-makers in western land conservation.

The Wyss Foundation is a private, charitable organization, dedicated to western public lands issues, and its Scholars Program supports graduate-level education for the next generation of leaders in western land conservation. JD students in their second year at Lewis & Clark who are interested in natural resources and public lands issues in western lands, may apply to serve as Wyss Scholars. If selected, the program includes generous tuition benefits, stipends for summer work, and financial assistance post-graduation to continue work in natural resources and public lands issues in western lands, more specifically, in the following areas: Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Scholars Program also provides access to a broad community of current and past Scholars–people who share an interest and passion for conservation and are working to protect western landscapes.

Lewis & Clark Law School is an extraordinary place to study environmental, natural resources, and energy law, and is frequently ranked as one of the top environmental law programs in the country. Lewis & Clark offers an extensive curriculum designed both to survey the field and focus on specific areas, a faculty of unusual depth and diversity, opportunities to work on actual environmental cases, the country’s first and most prestigious environmental law review, a championship winning environmental moot court program, and student environmental groups with a variety of perspectives. We are proud to have been selected as one of the first law schools to participate in the Wyss Scholars program.