The Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is offering students new ways to extend their education beyond the classroom.
For alumni Zane Mrozla-Mindrup and Kyoko Wall, the institute’s Student Fellows program opened doors to opportunities that inspired both to continue their studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Mrozla-Mindrup’s student fellowship experience included a Washington, D.C., internship.
“The fellowship made me realize how important trade was,” he said. “After (D.C.), I decided to go to Singapore because of its strong reputation in international trade.”
For Wall, her fellowship changed the way she thought about her own field of study.
“The Yeutter Institute is what brought my attention to international trade,” she said. “I was more interested in economic and international development work, but through meeting individuals during the first semester of my fellowship, I saw how many opportunities there are to work in trade.”
Mrozla-Mindrup and Wall’s experiences reflect the fellowship’s mission to prepare students for leadership in global trade. Students gain insight into law, economics, agriculture and international trade issues while building a network with leaders in the field and completing a capstone project that tests their skills beyond the classroom.
For the pair, those opportunities became the foundation for their decision to return to the university to pursue their graduate degrees.
Conversations with mentors and peers helped Mrozla-Mindrup realize that the questions he cared most about were at the intersection of global markets and rural economies.
“Nobody else really has that,” he said. “The biggest opportunity was the network, the people connected to the Yeutter Institute. I still talk to some of them every day.”
The fellows program also revealed how global trade is felt at the local level in rural Nebraska — in daily experiences, in perceptions of economic change and in the choices people make to stay or move away. These lessons are now shaping Mrozla-Mindrup and Wall’s graduate research.
Mrozla-Mindrup, who is from Louisville, graduated in 2025 with a degree in agricultural economics and is now pursuing a master’s degree in the same field. His research interests include international trade, commodity markets and farm prices, and how macroeconomic issues affect Nebraska communities.
Wall sought the same interdisciplinary approach. Having graduated in 2024 with a degree in economics and minors in international trade, statistics and business analytics, she is now pursuing a doctoral degree in economics because the program allowed her to “specialize and get my own version of that by working with faculty who work in both the agriculture and law departments,” Wall said.
Her research focuses on regional development, rural communities and migration patterns in Nebraska. She compares the challenge of understanding rural migration patterns to “throwing a dart at a board with a blindfold on,” Wall said.
She plans to study why people choose to move to Nebraska or leave, and how those decisions affect the state’s regional economics.
While Wall focuses on the movement of people, Mrozla-Mindrup turns his attention to the movement of goods and ideas, linking Nebraska’s future to global markets.
“At the end of the day, I’m from Nebraska,” he said. “I want my home state to succeed. Especially in the agricultural space. Trade is important, and connecting those two things through research would be ideal.”
That commitment to linking Nebraska’s future with the global economy reflects the mission of the Yeutter Institute. Rooted in Clayton Yeutter’s vision to prepare the next generation of leaders, the institute and its Student Fellows program equip students to think broadly, creatively and globally.
