Story by Jody Spear and Kelly Meyer –
Jordan Grube, a senior at Mason City High School, will be heading for Des Moines 0n January 9th to start her job as a Senate Page.
Jordan (pictured, right) was Sunrise Rotary Club Student of the Month for September. She got some good information from Representative Sharon Steckman and encouragement from Senator Amanda Ragan and her maternal grandmother, Lee Olson. She filled out the application and had interviews with both the House of Representatives and the Senate. “She had her pick of where she wanted to work, and she picked the Senate,” said Olson, “She can stick up for herself and argue a darn good case. Jordan was raised through the military, so she can adjust well. She kept her grades up and her attendance. She has always been on top of her game.”
“I’m scared and excited at the same time,” replied Jordan, when asked how she felt about moving to Des Moines and being on her own for the first time. “It’s my first step of being on my own and being independent.”
“Jordan is a very bright, intelligent, beautiful young lady. She has always been driven to succeed in everything she does and this opportunity couldn’t have happened to a more deserving young lady. Jordan wants to pursue a career as a Civil Attorney and getting to know the political side of life will definitely help her in her life’s journeys,”says Jordan’s mom, Kim Grube with pride.
Genny Grube, Jordan’s paternal grandmother, says, “I am very happy for her. I’m happy that she gets the chance to do this. It will be a great experience for her. It will help in her future as a lawyer. I know she will do well on her own, she has a good head on her shoulders.”
A Senate page has many different tasks during the course of a day. Each and every one of those tasks will, in some way, help the Senate to run more smoothly and allow the Senators the time to concentrate on their law-making duties.
Jordan’s duties will include performing errands within the Capitol complex and delivering messages to and from Senators, their secretaries, the front desk, and other Senate personnel as required. She will be distributing materials and information in the Senate Chamber and elsewhere about the Capitol complex as requested. Jordan will be performing any specific duties related to her work area for the day and assisting in any way possible to create an efficient operation in and for the Senate and in meetings of standing committees.
Pages will have many different supervisors, but ultimately all fifty Senators are supervisors for every employee. Pages are to be courteous, eager, and uncomplaining whenever they are asked to do something. Their job might include trivial, time-consuming, seemingly unimportant tasks, but this needs to be done so that the work of the Senate can progress. Both Senators and staff know that it would be difficult for the Senate to function without pages, so they are needed and appreciated.
“Jordan has put in a lot of hard work and effort into being successful, especially in school. I think it’s a great opportunity for her, for her to follow down that path to becoming a lawyer. I’m very proud of her,” says Jordan’s father, Duane.
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