Penn State Law prepares LL.M. student to become environmental policymaker

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- There are two things that make Penn State Law LL.M. student Nikita Tanwar’s face light up when she talks about them: the law, and her passion for the environment and animals.

“We had this amazing animal shelter right in front of my law school in India, so I’d study law during the day and in the evening I’d go be with the animals,” Tanwar said. “They have a thousand animals there—from dogs to cats to camels and bats and eagles; it’s a beautiful place.”

But Tanwar realized that if she wanted to make a difference in environmental law and animal rights activism, then she’d need to build on her legal education to gain more practical experience and a more global perspective on the law.

“I want to amalgamate environmental law and animal protection with mainstream business law,” Tanwar said. “It can be very hard to convince someone to save the planet, but much easier to convince someone to save their businesses. I want to help make policies to give short-term businesses incentives in order to obtain long-term environmental goals.”

She considered several options for her LL.M. program, but ultimately came to Penn State Law for many reasons: its range of academic options, its myriad of opportunities to gain hands-on experience, and its focus on real-world application of the law.

“Other colleges I applied to were very mechanical and only about the studies,” Tanwar said, “but I think the biggest reason I came to Penn State was the people.”

Tanwar said that when she spoke to Penn State Law assistant dean of Graduate and International Programs Stephen Barnes (who was so impressed by Tanwar’s love of animals that he’s since adopted a strictly vegetarian diet), he took the time to listen to her passions and tell her about the animal shelters near Penn State.

She could tell that Penn State Law would be a place where the people would really care about her – and not just the professors, either. Since coming to Penn State, she’s made friends with her classmates, her neighbors, even the bus drivers on her route.

“I didn’t only want to study, I wanted to grow as a person, and Penn State Law is a place where I can do both,” Tanwar said—and the more time she spends here, the more she knows she made the right decision.

Tanwar said Penn State Law gives her the flexibility in courses and academic offerings to allow her to shape her education to her interests and career goals, while also giving her a much stronger understanding of the practical application of the law than she had before coming to Penn State.

“If you want to go into policymaking, or delve really deeply into a subject, that’s something that Penn State Law is really great for, which I think is important in the practical practice of law,” Tanwar says. “I always genuinely look forward to my readings and my classes, and the professors are always very approachable if I ever have any kind of problem.”