A Paton-Churdan High School senior chose the Greene County Attorney’s Office to fulfill the work-based learning requirement for graduation and made a direct impact with a project at the same time.

Grace Cullum tells Raccoon Valley Radio her main project was to review 250 previous criminal cases that went back to the early 1900s and identify the individuals that were alive and still owed payment for victim restitution. Cullum explains that she would then fill out an application to initiate contempt that would notify these individuals that they needed to pay their victim restitution or legal action would be taken. 

Cullum shares her reaction when asked if she thought when she was doing that project that it would make a real impact for the Greene County Attorney’s Office and for County Attorney Thomas Laehn.

“I really didn’t. I think I actually grasped it until towards the end. He (Laehn) always kept mentioning like how much he appreciated that and that I would be making a difference, but I never thought it actually was, until I completed the project, and I realized that all of these things that I did are actually going to be put into action now.”. 

Cullum reveals one of her favorite parts of working in the county attorney’s office was having conversations with the two female assistant county attorneys.

“It was so, so cool, I loved it. We did have a discussion about being a female in this field. And they were able to give me a lot of insight into that, and talk about it, and give me the confidence that I could also be a female in this, and just the differences, and the stereotypes, and the stigmas around it, but that it is worth it.”   

Cullum adds that she will be attending Minnesota State University in the fall after she graduates high school, and will then plan to go to law school and become a lawyer.  To hear more from Cullum about her time with the county attorney’s office, listen to today’s Jefferson A&W Family Restaurant Let’s Talk Greene County program.