In what has become a tradition at the University of North Dakota — students serving in the Legislature — Stacey Horter and Nick Hacker have completed their first terms as North Dakota lawmakers.

Horter, a native of Bismarck, received her degree last spring while campaigning for the House. Hacker, originally from Alexandria, Minn., and still a student, is at age 22 the youngest person ever elected to the Senate. They represented District 42, which includes the UND campus, in the legislative session just ended.

In Bismarck, the two often crossed paths with a pair of elected state executive branch officials who also were UND students when they were first elected to the Legislature, remaining there until winning statewide office. Jim Poolman, class of 1992, is the state insurance commissioner, while Wayne Stenehjem, classes of 1974 and 1977 (law), serves as the attorney general. Rick Clayburgh, classes of 1990 (M.B.A.) and 1994 (law), recently stepped down as tax commissioner; he served in the House from 1988 to 1996.

Poolman says politics gave him an avenue to use the leadership skills he learned at UND in the early 1990s. “As student body president, I worked at building coalitions on campus,” he recently told the UND Alumni Association’s magazine, the Alumni Review. “The Legislature has a similar responsibility to work together to help move the state forward in general. I like the motto, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’”

At the federal level, two-thirds of North Dakota’s delegation earned their degrees at the University of North Dakota. Both Sen. Byron Dorgan, class of 1964 (he also holds an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from UND), and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, classes of 1974 and 1979 (law), were high-visibility students on campus. Now when they visit their alma mater, they often schedule in guest lectures and other appearances before today’s generation of students.

Elected officials in Bismarck and Washington who are UND alumni are perceived by today’s students as great role models regardless of political party, says Tim O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the Alumni Association.

But, he adds, running for political office is not the goal of most of the students he meets daily. Rather, future alumni want most to excel in their professional lives. In that realm, success will be based not only on what they know but also on what they can do, especially as a member of a team. So, he says, any experience they can get in “making things happen,” and any extra leadership training they can pick up along the way, pays off big time.