An attorney assisted Alexa Benitez’ grandfather with his naturalization process after her grandfather moved to Idaho decades ago from across the southern border.
Benitez, a first-generation college student and this year’s recipient of the Lindley Award in the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, was a small child in Blackfoot, when the process began that resulted in her grandfather’s U.S. citizenship.
It had another effect.
Watching the process unfold and seeing her grandfather’s pride in becoming an American cemented in Benitez the desire to help others the way the immigration attorney helped her grandfather.
“I was a little kid, and my grandfather always talked highly of lawyers like the one who helped him,” Benitez said. “He thought studying law was the highest educational achievement one could attain.”
When she was five years old, she recalled telling her kindergarten class of her plans to be a lawyer.
“I always knew I would go to college,” she said.
Benitez, who graduates in May 2026 with a double major in political science and psychology and with a minor in philosophy, is this year’s recipient of the highest annual award offered by her college. The Lindley Award recognizes the top student for excellence in scholarship and character as chosen by a panel of administrators and professors.
“Alexa is an extremely driven, hard-working and motivated student,” said Florian Justwan, associate professor of political science. “Beyond her performance in her regular semester classes, Alexa brings additional skills to the table that may not be immediately obvious from studying her resume.”
A 4.0 student, Benitez has worked as an ASUI senator and the director of student services at ASUI, and she’s a member of the editorial board of the political science department’s undergraduate research journal. She is also a two-year president of the PoliSci Society — the undergraduate student club of the Political Science program.
“I gained so much confidence from being in ASUI and through my professors in political science,” she said. “I didn’t think I was smart enough to do research, but they encouraged me.”
Her research project for the department — she investigated U.S. attitudes towards immigrants and immigration — was presented at the Office of Undergraduate Research Symposium and later published in the college’s Cook Undergraduate Research Journal. She also served on the advisory board of U of I's Center for Disability Access and Resources, was the fundraising chair for the Association of the Latino Professionals of America, joined the Pre-Law Society as well as other student organizations and programs.
“When I went to college, I decided there were two ways to do it; Either I get involved with a lot of extracurricular activities and do my best academically, or I would focus only on academics,” she said. “I guess I didn’t do either.”
One thing remained constant: She was going to attend law school.
She recently applied to the University of Idaho College of Law, taking another step to fulfill her dream and the dream of her grandfather who passed away during Alexa’s first semester at U of I.
I always knew I would go to college.
Alexa Benitez
Undergraduate in political science and psychology
“When my grandfather died, I kind of went through an existential crisis, like what am I doing?” said Benitez, who was realizing she was pursuing a dream her grandfather had for her. “I wanted to make him proud and to achieve something he never had.”
Neither of her grandparents had attained a high school education. After her grandfather’s death, Benitez took a critical look at her career path.
She decided to keep going. Besides observing the process of her grandfather’s naturalization, Benitez is no stranger to legal work. She has been employed as a legal assistant with a Blackfoot firm since she was 15, and her mother is a paralegal.
“When I see how attorneys help families and children, it reassures me that it’s what I want to do,” she said.
She plans to work at the Bonner County prosecutor’s office this summer.
Since her first visit to the Moscow campus while she was in high school, Benitez said that despite being so far from her Twin Falls home and her grandfather, attending U of I was her only desire.
“The campus was so beautiful, and everyone was so accommodating and inviting,” she said.
Being a first-generation student, she couldn’t turn to family members to help with the enrollment process. But she needn’t have worried.
“All the recruiters were very kind and very helpful. They explained the application process and helped me apply for scholarships,” she said. “I had no idea what I was doing, or how to do anything, and they helped me through every single step of the process. I must have sent a thousand emails. They answered every single one. They made it so easy.”
Winners of the Lindley receive a monetary award of $1,000 from the memorial fund established by Ernest K. Lindley, a distinguished alumnus of University of Idaho who established the award as a memorial to his parents, Ernest Hiram and Elizabeth Kidder Lindley. Ernest Hiram Lindley was president of University of Idaho from 1917 to 1920. A bronze bar, engraved with the winner’s name, is added to the Lindley Award plaque outside of the dean’s office in the Administration Building.