From her family farm to China, MSU Denver grad carries a world of experience with her to law school

A lot of students spend their semester studying abroad consumed with seeing the sights, sampling the food and experiencing a new culture. And Leah Dory did all that during her semester in Yangzhou, a city of about 4.5 million in eastern China.

But the 2025 Metropolitan State University of Denver graduate and former Colorado Water Fellow also spent a lot of time studying how that Asian nation manages and distributes its water supply.

It’s hardly an average college-student obsession, she acknowledged. But, as she said, “Water is my jam.”

Starting this fall, Dory will be immersed in water. Or rather, water law. She plans to start law school at the University of Colorado Boulder — she had numerous law-school offers to choose from but wanted to be close to home. She plans to specialize in the notoriously complex area of water law.

“It’s completely fascinating to me,” Dory said. “Water is how we are able to be where we are.”

That is as true on the other side of the world as it is here, she said. “Each community, whether it’s China or Colorado, has a unique way to manage water. It’s really a lens into the culture.”

Her own view of water took shape helping her family grow corn, wheat and pumpkins on their Windsor farm. In the city, Dory said, “We’ve engineered an environment where people don’t see our connection to water as much.”

On the farm, planting seeds, weeding, handling irrigation and understanding how vital rainfall is gave her an up-close view of what she calls the “cycle of nature” and how dependent that cycle is on water.

Arriving at MSU Denver, the Political Science major knew she was interested in water. And she was leaning toward studying law. But she said it was guidance from Matt Makley, Ph.D., who is now provost but then was chair of the History Department and “was such an amazing teacher,” and Jeremy Castle, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Political Science, that set her on course.

Makley “reinforced the importance of understanding history,” Dory said. Not only does history play a starring role in water law in the West, she said, “but if you don’t know where you’ve been, it’s hard to know where you’re going.”

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And it was Castle who invited her to join the University’s Mock Trial team. In a Mock Trial competition, a team from one university squares off against another to conduct a trial — civil or criminal — with students acting as attorneys and witnesses. She immediately decided that was for her. “I thought, ‘These people are cool,’” she said. “They became an important part of my community.”

It wasn’t just fun, though. “In Mock Trial,” Dory said, “you learn the skills of how to interpret law and the flexibility of that,” as well as thinking fast and responding to opponents’ arguments.

An MSU Denver Institute for Public Service internship in the office of Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet gave her an opportunity to observe how public policy gets done in this country. Then, a semester in China showed her how things get accomplished in that country.

The Chinese are building “watershed cities” where vegetation, parks and infrastructure anticipate flooding from nearby rivers and can absorb and channel excess water. She recognizes that China can push ahead on such huge projects quickly because the Communist Party-led government doesn’t have to account to the public for its decisions and spending.

She may have been awash in China’s water management and learning about the country’s dam projects, but she also picked up a tidbit or two about life on dry land there. “Technology there is everything,” she said. “You pay for everything on your phone, even in the small markets on out-of-the-way streets,” and QR codes take the place of cash or cards, and AI facial recognition is used for everything from entering campus to buying grocery stores.

Scooters are to the Chinese what cars are to us, and “Cameras are everywhere.” So much so that back home, she’s actually enjoying not being seen. “It’s nice to feel invisible again.”

But considering what Dory has already accomplished and the plans she’s got, it’s unlikely she’ll stay that way for long.

She envisions a future working both in Washington, D.C., and Colorado. “I still have a lot to learn,” she said, “but I hope to use my law degree to empower communities to have more efficient and effective, healthy relationships with water.”

Learn more about prelaw studies at MSU Denver.