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Key Connections: Bismarck attorney found the right fit in his own backyard

发布: 2020年5月22日
Key Connections: Bismarck attorney found the right fit in his own backyard
Feeling like you’re at 首页 is a consideration for a lot of incoming college students as they research schools and tour campuses. 大学是不是太大了? 它够大吗?? 是不是太远了? 是否更远??

对于Justin Vinje来说，在考虑平衡计分卡时，他 是 首页. Growing up just south of Bismarck and attending eighth through twelfth grades in town meant this community 是 his. “There were a number of classmates and friends, 如果我诚实的话, that chose to continue on at BSC and that really factored in for me. 我喜欢高中. I had really good friends here and I wanted to stay here,” said Vinje. “Some people can’t wait to get out of the house and be their own person. 但 I liked what 是 going on at the time and 是 happy to keep doing it.”

Friendships are an important bond for any student to feel engrained in their surroundings. It’s no secret a sense of belonging is what supports well-being and can improve a student’s academic outcomes. 然而,, 对于贾斯汀, the familiarity of Bismarck layered in an even more defining quality that he hadn’t even expected: connection to his instructors. “I don’t know that it 是 the first thing in my mind at the time, but I thought that the faculty to student ratio 是 really good. We got as much one-on-one interaction with the professors as we wanted. If I try to put myself back into my 18- or 19 -year-old self, I know I benefitted from that. It impacts your education and choices that you make moving forward.”

一位导师，博士. 巴布·佩里，最后成为了他的顾问. She 是 also local to Bismarck and knew Justin’s uncle Kent. “People who are instructing you having roots in the community 是 beneficial. It gives you a common bond and a greater interaction. Dr. 和佩里聊天很有趣.”

She 是 also a great instructor and Justin feels that because of taking her speech classes, he 是 able to serve as one of the commencement speakers when he graduated in 1999. Incidentally, that experience led to another lifelong connection, as well. His co-commencement speaker Linda Volk 是 a non-traditional student at BSC when non-traditional students were less common. They met through that shared opportunity, which sparked a lifelong friendship.

“I really had a lot of gratitude for the institution and recognized that many students came from different backgrounds than mine, 但平衡计分卡让我们都成功了.”

等他拿到学位的时候, Justin felt the calling to spread his wings and he joined the Army National Guard, where he 是 trained in journalism at the Defense Information School in Baltimore, Md. 但, 就像他决定去BSC一样, his connection to 首页 and family continued to shape who he 是 and what he ultimately dreamed for himself. In his heart he knew he wanted to be a lawyer and practice with his dad in Bismarck. “那些看着我长大的人, 我认为, 我一直都知道我会成为一名律师, 但我一直不确定，直到我长大一点.”

To pursue that dream, he moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., to complete his four-year degree at Augustana. He saw this as a very natural extension to BSC in that faculty were rooted in the community and it 是 a beautiful campus. 他又一次感到宾至如归. He journeyed north to law school at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks in the fall of 2002. It 是 there that another major life moment occurred – he met his wife, Tiffany. 

Tiffany and Justin were in the same law class at UND, but when his Guard unit 是 activated in the spring of 2003, he had to wait until the following spring to re-enroll, 也就是说她比他早毕业一年. They married and bought their first house in 2006, just a few blocks from where his dad grew up in Bismarck.

贾斯汀和他爸爸拉尔夫关系很好. 小时候， they rode together every morning the 30 miles into Bismarck from their small ranch. So, getting to practice law with him 是 a very special opportunity. Ralph had his own firm from 1977 until he passed away suddenly in 2009. “I got to work with him for three years and I got a really good foundation. 我学会了如何做律师的工作, but I thought I would learn how to run a business over a longer period of time. Imagine someone in mid-stride and then they are gone, and you have to pick up the pieces. I didn’t really have much of a window for grieving. 我只是不停地工作. I 是n’t expecting to run my own office with only three years of experience.”

尽管挑战重重，贾斯汀还是成功了. 今天, he and Tiffany run Vinje Law Firm on Avenue C, just one block north from where his dad’s office 是. 和, although Bismarck has changed dramatically since his time at BSC, it’s still 首页 and it’s a good feeling to be raising his family where he 是 raised.

The foundation he earned at BSC helped create the life he and his family have now and it is a path he’s proud to have taken.

“参加平衡计分卡有令人信服的理由. 这是一个很好的教育, 一个好的社区, 有好人, 它是安全的, it’s pretty and there’s a dramatic change in seasons you don’t get to see everywhere in the United States,他说. “任何一所大学都可以成为你想要的样子, but I strongly believe that it’s a benefit to have close access to professors and that major advantage exists at BSC.”