Former UAF Chukchi student earns UCLA law degree

Submitted by John Creed
Phone: (907) 442-3400 ext. 117
05/18/05

As 6-year-old Inupiaq Eskimo Kimberly Jorgensen watched her father die of emphysema 20 years ago, she vowed that someday she would become a medical doctor.

As life goes, Kimberly’s youthful dream eventually changed from doctor to lawyer. Either choice, of course, requires many years of intense postsecondary study, which started at Chukchi Campus, Kotzebue’s branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, while she was still a high school student.

In fact, by the time Kimberly graduated from Kotzebue Middle/High School in 1996, she was already well on her way to an associate degree.

Kimberly’s UAF academic experience no doubt helped when she applied to and was accepted by many prestigious colleges and universities. She ultimately turned down, for example, Smith College for Dartmouth, an Ivy League school in rural New Hampshire with a strong Native American studies program.

Kimberly followed her four-year degree from Dartmouth with a master’s in Native American Studies clear across the country at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Then, in 2002, Kimberly began another grueling three years of study, also at UCLA, but this time at its law school, considered one of the nation’s best and most exclusive.

This past Sunday at commencement exercises at UCLA, 26-year-old Kimberly Ardis Panitchiaq Jorgensen earned her law degree, capping nine straight years of postsecondary study after leaving Kotzebue in the mid-1990s.

Kimberly’s mom, Mamie Jorgensen, was excited and impatient last Thursday morning in Kotzebue, waiting for the weather to clear so she could fly to California to be at her daughter’s graduation.

"That darn fog," she said. "I waited how long for this?"

Mamie Jorgensen raised Kimberly and her younger sister, Nicole, 25, in their tiny home in Kotzebue, located 26 miles above the Arctic Circle in Northwest Alaska. The close-knit family got by on a widow’s modest income after her husband’s untimely death, and Jorgensen always fought for her girls to get the best education they could even if they lived in the remote reaches of rural Alaska.

"Education has always been important to me," Mamie Jorgensen said. "Even when my girls were small, I’d say, ’You’re going to college. You’re going to college.’ Education was also important to my parents, and my father loved to read. I’ve always loved to read."

In Kotzebue Mamie Jorgensen always encouraged her daughters to take advantage of every educational opportunity such as the Chukchi Honors Program, developed by Chukchi Campus faculty to allow motivated high school students ways to earn high school and college credits simultaneously. UAF’s Chukchi program helped plant the idea in the two young girls "that we could go off to college and succeed," said Kimberly. Taking college classes at Chukchi Campus while still in high school, she said, encouraged both girls to develop the academic skills and confidence to apply to some of the nation’s most exclusive colleges and universities.

"When in high school, I think a lot of students look for some type of encouragement," Kimberly Jorgensen said.

In 2002 Nicole Jorgensen completed a journalism degree at Northeastern University in Massachusetts, where she now works in copyediting and graphic design in Boston’s financial district. Last week Nicole flew to Los Angeles for her older sister’s graduation.

"I couldn’t be more proud of her," she said. "I always thought of (Kimberly) as my smart sister. She set a good example when I was two grades below her in Kotzebue. Same with her going off to college. She paved the way. I’m not surprised she’s come this far."

Both young women say they plan to "move home" to work in Kotzebue in the future, but Kimberly’s immediate plans require passing the California bar exam in July and landing a job with a firm that practices Indian law.

"I always keep home in mind, even if I’m working for another tribal or marginalized community in the Lower 48," she said, adding that from her Kotzebue childhood she learned "values and sense of community."

Although both sisters have received financial aid, they still face years of paying off massive student loans, their mother said.

"But both my girls have said, ’Mom, our education was worth every penny,’" said Mamie Jorgensen. "They’ve had so many wonderful experiences."

As an intern at the Boston Globe, Nicole saw her columns reach a huge urban newspaper audience. Kimberly traveled to Australia as a Dartmouth College undergrad to study aboriginal land claims, and while at UCLA she served as a law clerk for Arizona’s Hopi tribe.

Both daughters credit their mother’s strength and moral support and their faith in God for helping them succeed in higher education against daunting financial, social and academic challenges. Nicole still calls home every day.

"It’s more for me," she said. "I like to hear (Mom’s) voice. Distance hasn’t affected our relationship at all. We’re all still very close."

Kimberly admires her mother for allowing her children to go out and experience the world far beyond Kotzebue and Alaska.

"She’s loves us enough to respect our freedom and choices and not hold us back in any way," she said. "She’s been totally supportive."

CONTACT: John Creed, at (907) 442-3400 ext. 117 or e-mail zfjc@uaf.edu or Susan Andrews, (907) 442-3400 ext. 110 or e-mail zfsba@uaf.edufor more information. Both are humanities professors at UAF’s Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue.