Colleen Youngdahl, a third-year student at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston will be working at UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity this academic year, Director Adjoa Aiyetoro has announced.

Youngdahl chose working at the new institute as part of Northeastern  University School of Law’s Cooperative  Legal Education Program which integrates four quarters of full-time employment into the school’s law curriculum. She also has been accepted as a visiting student at the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law during her time in Little Rock.

Tabitha Lee, a Clinton School and UALR William H. Bowen School of Law student, also will be working at the institute working on her Clinton School Capstone project.

UALR established the institute last year to seek reconciliation as well as racial and ethnic justice in Arkansas by “remembering and understanding the past, informing and engaging the present, and shaping and defining the future,” according to the institute’s mission statement.

The institute’s creation, fostered by Chancellor Joel E. Anderson, was the culmination of four years of internal and community conversations, programming, research, and outreach on the subject of race. The institute will address racial and ethnic justice  through education, research, dialogue, community events, and reconciliation initiatives.

This summer, UALR and the new institute – partnering with the city of Little Rock and the Clinton Foundation – marked the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Riders bus rides that helped end segregation in interstate transportation facilities.