SVSU students vied for global moot court recognition

June 18, 2026

SVSU students vied for global moot court recognition

Pair was only U.S. team to qualify for preliminary round

For the second year, a pair of Saginaw Valley State University students was the only U.S.-based team to earn a spot in the preliminary rounds of the prestigious Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition. McKenzie Shagena, a political science major from Fort Gratiot, and Carter Poniatowski, a criminal justice major from Attica, shared this achievement with just 49 other teams around the world.

"I am incredibly proud of McKenzie and Carter's accomplishment! This is a testament to their countless hours of research and writing as well as their analytical and critical thinking abilities," said Kevin G. Lorentz II, associate professor of political science at SVSU and moot court advisor.

The Nelson Mandela Competition is a three-part process. In January, Shagena and Poniatowski submitted two memorials, or legal briefs, for a hypothetical human rights case. The top 10 teams from each of the five United Nations regions were invited to participate in the preliminary rounds, which were held virtually May 18-23. While Shagena and Poniatowski were not among the 24 teams advancing to the final, in-person rounds, they gained valuable experience.

"I wanted to explore international law and find out whether it was an area I could see myself pursuing," said Shagena, who joined SVSU's moot court team in fall 2025. "When I heard about the Nelson Mandela Competition, I knew it would be an amazing opportunity to push beyond domestic law and develop a broader set of skills."
For Shagena and Poniatowski, the competitions provided a crash course in international law.

"Carter and I knew very little about international law going in, and it felt like we had stepped into an entirely different legal world, as international courts operate nothing like U.S. courts," Shagena said. "We had just under two months to write two 3,000-word memorials, and a significant portion of that time was spent simply learning how international law functions before we could even begin creating our arguments."
She credits Lorentz with helping the team navigate the learning curve, even though competition rules limited how much assistance he could provide.

The team of Shagena and Poniatowski is the second SVSU team to earn a spot in the Nelson Mandela Competition preliminary rounds. In 2025, Payton Stemmerich and Jason Hoang advanced to the final rounds held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Following the 2025-2026 competition year, SVSU's moot court team was ranked No. 17 in the United States by the American Moot Court Association, the highest standing of all Michigan undergraduate teams.