From Rhinelander to Oxford

Rhinelander’s own Lisa Kennedy, a 2021 Rhinelander High School graduate, will study the United States from the outside looking in starting this fall.

In October, Kennedy ships off for Great Britain, where she will study at the University of Oxford, the world’s second-oldest university, established in 1096. Kennedy is to attend Oxford for one year, pursuing a Master’s degree in U.S. history.

“It’s something I definitely never planned or expected,” said Kennedy, who never thought studying U.S. law would allow her to study abroad.

“It will be an interesting perspective,” she said. “Being able to look at the U.S. from an outside the U.S. perspective will be helpful because I think so often when we study the U.S. from inside the U.S. there are so many things we take as natural and given even though they’re the result of decades of policy and intention.”

Kennedy became interested in pursuing a law career during her time in high school and working an internship at O’Melia, Schiek & McEldowney in Rhinelander.

After high school, she was admitted into Washington D.C.’s prestigious Georgetown University, where she graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in American studies.

“I knew I wanted to major in something related to history, politics, something like that, so I majored in American Studies, which is a mix of all those things,” Kennedy said. “That was largely because of my AP history classes at Rhinelander High School.”

Georgetown, which has educated 26 U.S. governors, two supreme court justices, two presidents and 116 members of the United States Congress, was an outstanding — but relatively uncommon — place for a first-generation college student from rural Wisconsin.

“There aren’t a lot of other students like that at Georgetown,” Kennedy said. “There’s a lot of legacy [students], a lot of people whose parents went to other prestigious universities.”

During her time at Georgetown, Kennedy identified closely with her background and became interested in rural education advocacy, working for the Rural Schools Collaborative, a rural education nonprofit organization.

“That gave me direction when it came to what my law education would be — that would be for making education more equitable and affordable for students — rural and low income students in particular,” she said.

Near the end of her time at Georgetown, Kennedy started to look toward law school prospects. At the insistence of some friends, she applied for the prestigious Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. While Kennedy was not awarded those scholarships, she was a finalist and soon learned that Georgetown offered scholarships to students who make it to the finalist rounds. Kennedy was selected to receive a master’s degree scholarship to the University of Oxford.

After Kennedy returns to the U.S. next summer, she plans on attending law school in the fall of 2026 to earn either her juris doctor (JD) to practice law or her PhD — she eventually plans on attaining both.

“I’d love to be a law professor but I’d also like to serve as an advisor or point of contact — or even somebody that could help out — for appellate cases for people in rural places that are otherwise underserved. Particularly tribes suffering with asserting their sovereignty,” Kennedy said.

Whether in Washington D.C. or abroad in Oxford, England, Kennedy has kept rural Wisconsin communities in her heart; her Georgetown senior thesis was on the Wisconsin Walleye War and her proposed Oxford master’s dissertation will be on the Crandon mine dispute of the late 20th century.

“I think the Crandon mine controversy is the clearest example of how all of those factors coalesce,” Kennedy said. “The struggles and desires of all people in rural places — whether they’re white, indigenous, low-oncome, middle-income, upper income — I think they’re all represented in things like that.”

Ultimately, Kennedy would like to be involved in legal work that supports Wisconsin communities and residents — whether that means living in Wisconsin or working in a city center serving the people of rural Wisconsin.

As she prepares to embark on her next journey in England, Kennedy takes with her the important lessons she’s learned along the way — most recently at Georgetown.

“Being a private Jesuit university, I thought the teachings of always tying your scholarship to service, that everything you learn should be in service of the greater good and in service of other people, was a really cool way to approach everything we learned because it made it feel a lot less detached from the world,” she said.

As Kennedy prepares her Oxford dissertation in the coming year, she asks that anyone with information or documents regarding the Crandon mine contact her at [email protected].

Michael Strasburg may be reached at [email protected].