He taught Hebrew in a religious school to support himself while attending University of Nebraska in Lincoln. As an undergraduate, he was on the debate team for three years. He was a member of Nebraska's “Think-Shop” and was elected to Delta Sigma Rho, the national debating honorary society, in May 1927, serving as president of that organization for one year. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, and was a reader for the political science department. For two years, he wrote a semi-weekly column in "The Daily Nebraskan," official student newspaper entitled “A Student Looks at Public Affairs."