Elijah Conley's Path Beyond Senior Walk Takes Him to Washington, D.C.

Elijah Conley, originally from Melbourne, a small town in Izard County, Arkansas, has always had a clear trajectory for his life: he wanted to be a lawyer.  

“I saw education as a way to create the life I wanted for myself,” he says. “And through that, I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer because it is a way to help people.” 

Though he was the first in his family to attend college, choosing where to go was easy: “I always imagined myself attending the U of A and being a Razorback!” he says.  

While majoring in journalism and political science, he was also active in Associated Student Government and the Honors College Path Program, which he credits with helping pave the way to this dream. He also says the Honors College opened up many of the opportunities he had as an undergrad, such as his national internship with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, another internship at the University Museum, serving as a teaching assistant for the Inspired Honors course and as a resident assistant in Hotz Honors Hall: “Those opportunities stemmed from the relationships I built in Path,” he says. 

With the encouragement of mentors at the Honors College, he graduated a year early, magna cum laude, in 2021, and was accepted to one of his dream schools: Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C.  

While there, his ambition paid off. He was selected to be the senior diversity and inclusion editor for the Georgetown Law Journal, assisted on an amicus brief in a civil rights case and secured four internships. 

Elijah graduated from Georgetown in 2024 and passed the bar with a high enough score to practice in all Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions. He secured a clerkship for Chief Judge Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas after graduation, and he is now building his law career at a national law firm in D.C. 

Elijah says he loves living in D.C.; however, he still has strong ties to Arkansas. He came back to the U of A in 2025 to speak to students in the U of A’s School of Journalism and in the Path Program. He mentors students interested in Georgetown Law as well. 

From a small town in northern Arkansas to the capitol of the United States, Elijah says he still carries with him an important lesson he learned through the Path Program: “When you get to where you’ve always wanted to be,” he says, “open the door for the person behind you.” 

For more student success stories like Elijah's, check out our other #MyPathToSeniorWalk features on the My Path to Senior Walk page. If you have story that you'd like told or know someone who has an inspiring story, please check out the nomination form.