In the early 1900s, residents of Ephrata, Washington, began lobbying neighbors and the government for a project using water from the Columbia River to irrigate fertile area soils to produce bumper wheat crops.
Thus began the Grand Coulee Dam project, which continues to support regional agriculture and generate power for the Pacific Northwest.
Payton Schooler-Polillo, a third-year law student who grew up in Ephrata, said being raised in the shadow of the Columbia River project provided a sense of how commitment to goals can lead to great achievements.
As a Vandal earning a juris doctor in Moscow, she cultivated her own irrigation project that redirects resources for meaningful returns.
Drawing on her background as a veteran of the Armed Forces, the former president of the Idaho Veteran’s Law Association (IVLA) pools assets from the legal community and University of Idaho College of Law to help former armed service members with legal challenges. She also lobbies Idaho’s congressional delegation on behalf of veterans.
Schooler-Polillo’s efforts, and those of fellow IVLA students have taken root. Under her leadership, the association grew from five students to 60 members including law students and pro bono attorney volunteers. Veterans from across the region — more than 200 since 2023 when she took the reins — attend IVLA clinics four times a year for free legal advice and support.
“It has been an extraordinary feeling to see this organization grow and flourish,” said Schooler-Polillo, who spent four years in the U.S. Air Force before attending law school. “The program is no longer in its infancy. It’s now in its blossoming stage.”
Schooler-Polillo first encountered the legal system as a young woman with limited resources seeking to hire a divorce attorney. A firm comprised of women attorneys took her case and allowed her to pay off legal fees by working at the law office.
She moved to Lewiston to attend Lewis-Clark State College, earned a business degree and paid her tuition while working at a Lewiston law firm.
“I learned a lot about the legal profession in those years, completing a lot of legal tasks and really came to enjoy it,” she said.
I never considered enrolling anywhere but the U of I College of Law.
Payton Schooler-Polillo
Third-year law student
She decided to attend law school and joined the Air Force with the intention of one day becoming a legal professional by using the GI Bill to finance her studies. After five years stationed in places like Qatar and elsewhere in the Middle East, Schooler-Polillo left the Air Force as a staff sergeant and enrolled at the U of I College of Law.
“I never considered enrolling anywhere but the U of I College of Law,” she said. “My husband was born and raised in Lewiston, and it felt more like home to me than Central Washington ever had. As a wife and mother, I knew that I wanted to raise my family in Idaho and wanted to continue to nurture the roots I had planted here.”
If there are two takeaways from her life so far, they include mentoring young women pursuing law, and serving veterans, which brought her to IVLA.
“I’m pretty passionate about helping our veterans,” she said. “I know what many of them have sacrificed, and I feel this is another way to serve our veteran community.”
When Schooler-Polillo joined IVLA, it had a smidgeon of volunteers. She quickly earned support from fellow students and regional attorneys, growing the membership to dozens of volunteers who help organize, publicize and provide services at clinics in Moscow and Lewiston.
Second-year law student Brianna Royzen volunteered at the association as a show of appreciation for service members.
“When you meet the veterans and their families you get a small glimpse into their lives and sacrifices, and you cannot help but feel honored to help such wonderful and giving people,” she said.
Royzen, who was born into a military family on Washington D.C.’s Joint Base Andrews, said growing up on bases surrounded by people who devoted at least a part of their lives to serving their country gave her a foundation of duty she still leans on today.
“I owe much of my success to the rigors of that upbringing. I’m grateful for the time around service members and all I learned in that environment,” she said.
The IVLA is a special club among others on campus because of the large military community at U of I, Royzen said.
She chose U of I Law to pursue her dream of becoming an attorney because of its generous benefits package, scholarships and academic strengths in areas like economics. The university also supported her with a year of remote study through a pre-law online program.
“U of I took a second look at me as a person, instead of a GPA and LSAT score, and engaged with me about my dreams for my career and how to get there,” she said.
She spent part of Summer 2025 studying abroad in Florence, Italy, where she won the International Mediation Competition.
“University of Idaho supports amazing programs and employs wonderful professors that make these incredible opportunities possible,” Royzen said.
Both Royzen and Schooler-Polillo, as well as latest association president Christian Face, an Army ROTC member and third-year law student, anticipate expanding the association’s outreach south to Central Idaho.
The group plans to launch its first mobile outreach legal aid clinic for veterans in rural areas, such as Grangeville, this fall, she said.
"My journey from a small town in Central Washington to law school at University of Idaho has felt much like the irrigation project that gave rise to my hometown — slow and steady work that, once flowing, nourishes everything it touches,” Schooler-Polillo said.
“The College of Law has been the water source I needed to grow — personally, professionally and in service to others. Through supportive faculty, hands-on clinics and a mission that values community, U of I helped me bring my goals to fruition. I hope it continues to do the same for future students who want to serve, to advocate, and to give back."