A glimpse of graduates

Uriel Benichou — law

Uriel Benichou said he blames America for breaking his shy personality.

Hailing from Nice, France, Benichou, a graduating senior from the University of Idaho College of Law, said America has benefitted and challenged him.

Benichou, who already holds two law degrees, said there are numerous differences between France and the United States, both in profession and culture.

When Benichou began studying law in France, he said his lecture halls contained approximately 450 students. He never knew the names of his professors and if the class found an abbreviated letter for the professor’s first name, students joked about what it could be.

U.S. classrooms, Benichou said, are a much more intimate setting.

Benichou said a challenge was learning how to adapt to a new writing style. French legal writing is about showing off, he said, whereas English writing is about dumbing down the writing and getting to point.

“I’m in the middle,” he said. “English legal writing is precise and easy to get your point across, yeah, no problem, but it’s damn ugly.”

Benichou said he has traveled to India, many areas of Europe and North Africa but despite all his globetrotting he met his wife, Nina Benichou, at John’s Alley in Moscow during his first visit to the U.S. in 2009.

Corinne Smith — music education

Middle school children are tough to crack, Corinne Smith said after talking about how one of her students once got his genitalia stuck in a trumpet.

Despite the challenges, Smith, a graduating music education graduate student, said teaching music to middle school children is as rewarding as it is fulfilling.

Smith said she decided on music education in the middle of high school, fell in love with it as an undergraduate sophomore and connected to it as a middle school band director.

After graduating, she said she plans to transition to her next batch of middle school children in Tacoma, Washington, a job she said is intimidating and exciting.

“It’s just nice to be working with kids again,” she said. “I love the collegiate level, but I’m just so much better with kids. You can be a goofball, you can just channel all that energy and it’s so much more rewarding when they finally get a concept than when a collegiate student finally gets a concept.”

Smith said she is a passionate music maker who wants to change her students’ lives through the power
of music.

She said she is extremely passionate about education and competition and thinks the best teachers can find a way to reach every student to make them successful.

“My goal, especially working with younger students, is to make competition healthy and use it to raise the bar rather than have it be negative and unhealthy,” Smith said.

A.J. Moyer — music performance

Playing the flute started as hobby, morphed into a passion and blossomed into a career for A.J. Moyer.

Moyer, a graduating music performance major who studies and plays flute, said although music performance is competitive, she loves it because it’s something she’s been exposed to for most of her life.

She said she started playing when she was just 8 years old and has been performing and competing for openings ever since.

“We have a very supportive studio, so even though I’m in huge competition with my classmates, we’re still really good friends,” Moyer said. “That makes it easier.”

A large part of her study, she said, is ensemble, which includes marching band, wind ensemble and flute choir.

Moyer said she reacts strongly to those who say music majors do not have a career aspiration following college.

There is a thought process behind studying music, and there is a goal, she said.

“I also work as a server, so I’ve had a lot of interaction with people,” Moyer said. “It’s a little frustrating sometimes when they ask what you’re studying and they’re like, ‘Oh, what are you going to do with that?'”

After graduating, she said she will travel to Washington D.C. to audition for the U.S. Navy Band. Her initial goal was the U.S. Air Force Band, but she said she hasn’t seen any auditions.

Alayne Randall — law

While some college roommates bicker about beer, Alayne Randall just tells hers to clean
his room.

Randall, a graduating law student, has lived with her 19-year-old son, another UI student, for approximately two years.

“We joke like it’s a sitcom waiting to happen,” Randall said. “In fact, it was his idea. I think that means I’m a sort of cool mom.”

Randall said she is passionate about criminal prosecution and the rule of law. It is a way for her to connect with people, which is an intense passion of hers.

She said by holding people accountable for their actions, she can help break the pattern that is leading them to the lowest point in their life.

“When you’re dealing with somebody in the legal field, you’re pretty much seeing them at … probably one of their lowest spots in their life,” Randall said. “They really need somebody to help them get out of that situation.”

She said juggling four kids and law school has been the hardest aspect of her time at UI. She said her family lives eight hours away in Idaho Falls.

“That distance creates its own challenges,” she said. “I don’t get to see them very often — once every five or six weeks — that’s hard. It’s hard missing out on their activities. It’s hard not being a part of their daily routines, where I was very involved in the daily routines.”

She said she is thankful for the sacrifices her family had to make to help her follow her dreams.

“It’s really hard thing to tell a kid, ‘You’ll really see mom in three years,'” Randall said. “That’s a hard thing for them to get, so I’m really appreciative of their sacrifice so that I could be up here. I try and do well in school because that’s my way of showing that I appreciate their sacrifice.”

KC Lynne — law

Ralph Harding, a democratic Idaho congressman in 1961 and 1965, urged his granddaughter to pursue law when he heard she was considering politics.

KC Lynne, a graduating law student, said her grandfather’s encouragement helped her become passionate about social justice and pro bono work.

She said she wanted to do something that was different every day, but where she could still help people.

“I think we all go into law school thinking we want to save the world, and I was kind of the same way, like I wanted to be a public defender,” Lynne said. “I don’t want to do that anymore.”

She said legal writing was a challenge but she eventually became accustomed to it. One of her lowest grades during her first year in law school was in writing. Now, she’s the editor-in-chief of the Idaho Law Review.

“I thought of myself as a writer, and then you come into law school and have to relearn it all, and it turns out you’re not so good at writing,” Lynne said.

Lynne said she could sum up her time in legal writing with the phrase — “If I had a little more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.”

Alena Horowitz — interior design and clothing, textiles and design

Fashion and interior design mesh in a particularly cohesive way, according to Alena Horowitz.

Horowitz, a graduating interior design and clothing, textiles and design double major, said some of her friends and family have been confused as to why she chose those two fields of study.

“In my opinion, I think all art and design fields really should be more cohesive than they are right now,” Horowitz said. “The interior design and the architecture departments are separated, but in the real world they’re all working together including landscape design.”

Horowitz said fashion and interior design have historically mingled in a positive way. For example, she said chaise lounges were made specifically for women that would faint onto them because their corsets were so tight.

Fashion has always been incorporated into interior design through the use of textiles, she said. There’s also a display aspect of high-end fashion retailing that sees interior design being a heavy component.

Horowitz said she always wanted to be an artist, but wanted to find a technical way to apply it. Fashion, even though it seems simple, requires a relatively high amount of math.

With fashion, she said there is more market analysis and trend research to better reach the target market. With interior design, it’s about figuring out the proper utilization of space.

Following her five years at UI, Horowitz said she will embark on a 500-mile hike in Spain with her sister.

Jake Smith can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @notjakesmith