From Courtrooms to Fire Stations, Goodrell Students Learn About Careers
Aaron Lindebak (Roosevelt ’06), a law clerk with the Iowa Court of Appeals, talks with Goodrell Middle School students about a career in the law.
It goes without saying that nobody wants their house to burn down, or to be arrested and hauled into court to appear before a judge. Better to be on the other side, the right side, of those scenarios and on Monday and Tuesday 8th graders from Goodrell Middle School were all over town getting up close glimpses into what it takes and what it’s like to actually pursue careers in public service as firefighters, police officers and jurists.
Besides the site visits to the new downtown fire station, police headquarters and the Iowa Judicial Branch Building an assortment of guest speakers including Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tom Ahart came to Goodrell to address the soon-to-be high school students about their respective career fields. There were realtors, nurses, dentists and soldiers.
But with all due respect and appreciation to them, none were able to offer the opportunity that Judge Mary Tabor of the Iowa Court of Appeals did. Before each busload of kids left the judicial building across the street from the state capitol she invited everybody to have a seat behind the bench and imagine for a moment what it might be like to hold such an influential office. There were many takers, just as there’d been at the end of the tour at Firehouse No. 1 on Mulberry Street when tour guide Lieutenant Mark Dooley asked if anybody wanted a copy of the City of Des Moines’ official job description for the position of Fire Fighter.
Nothing was sugarcoated to make the students think the exciting and vital fields are easy choices. Dooley stressed the importance of math and science and physical fitness in the training to battle blazes like the one that recently consumed the historic Younkers Building in downtown Des Moines. But the single most indispensable quality, he said more than once, is people skills.
“Just remember that most of the people you’ll deal with will be having the worst day of their lives,” he said. “We can teach you and train you for most of the skills, but you have to bring that desire to work with and help people with you to the job.”
At the judicial building, Judge Tabor’s clerk, Aaron Lindebak, greeted the group after they’d passed through the security checkpoint at the building’s entrance and led the way, floor by floor, up to the chambers of the Court of Appeals and the Iowa Supreme Court. Lindebak said he recalled going on a similar outing when he was an 8th grader at Callanan Middle School before going on to graduate from Roosevelt High School and, eventually, the University of Iowa Law School in 2013. Going into law, he told the tourists, requires lots of reading and writing and reasoned arguing. Law school is grueling and expensive although, he pointed out, he was able to get his bachelor’s degree at Iowa in only three years and save a year’s worth of tuition thanks to all the AP classes and exams he took at Central Academy in high school.
Judge Tabor worked as a lawyer in the Iowa Attorney General’s office for about twenty years before becoming a judge. When she was asked about the toughest part of the job she paused. “Well, sometimes it’s hard not to think about all that might be riding on our decisions,” she said. “But that’s also what makes this work so interesting.”
The other aspect that’s maybe not her favorite is when one of the court’s rulings is overturned on appeal to the Supreme Court. When that occasionally happens it must feel like an umpire or referee does when their call is reversed by instant replay. But in both cases the general point that’s made is how often the original judgment is upheld as correct.
A full morning of intense consideration of personal futures can really create an appetite. So after recessing for lunch, teacher Sarah Knobloch’s charges adjourned to the steps of the judicial building to consider the lunches they’d all brought along. No justice was served; just a lot of sandwiches.
While downing his PB&J one student was overheard reflecting on what Lindebak had told them about the first two years of law school being unbearable and the third being a breeze.
“Man, that sounds a lot like middle school to me.”
