2006 graduate Grant Treaster pursues career as a law clerk for the district of Kansas

After a busy day filled with writing, courtrooms and studying laws, a career as a term law clerk under District Judge Julie Robinson combined all of 2006 graduate Grant Treaster’s passions into one.

During his time in high school, Treaster developed an interest in politics and writing after his experiences in English and social studies classes, and accredited his passion for the subjects to the influential teachers he had as a student.

“I really loved [social studies teacher Jeff] Strickland’s class,” Treaster said. “Like a lot of other people, I would say I got interested in government somewhat because of him. I had [former communication arts teacher Justin] Bogart my senior year and he was great.”

In addition to his studies sparking in an interest in writing and social issues, Treaster continued exploring similar subjects by participating in broadcast journalism and debate. He was also involved in athletics as a member of the cross country, track and soccer teams. Secretary Edie Waye, who has known Treaster since his childhood, said he excelled in both academics and extracurriculars in high school.

“Grant moved next door to us when he was like two years old,” Waye said. “He’s been best friends with my son ever since. He was a very good student. I remember in one subject, he was just like, ‘I’m going to teach myself.’ He couldn’t catch on in class, but he did awesome.”

Treaster said his involvement in high school allowed him to explore his interests in a way that helped him make decisions about his future.

“I feel like high school was a time where I was exposed to a lot of different things, through English classes and political science classes and forensics classes, and I think I just kind of explored the world a little bit more,” Treaster said. “It kind of set me on the path for what I wanted to do in college and after that. I changed majors my first year in college, but I feel like I had a general idea of where I was going and the direction I wanted to go in, and a large part of that was because of how high school was.”

After graduation, Treaster enrolled in the University of Kansas to study journalism, though later changed his major to political science. Following the completion of his undergraduate degree, Treaster continued on into law school at KU and went on to take a job as a term law clerk under Robinson.

“My dad was an attorney and made a big impact on me, and then taking my government classes and writing and forensics and everything made me really interested in politics and how things worked,” Treaster said. “Through that, I started thinking about law school, and it progressed from there.”

As a result of knowing the Treaster family for many years, Waye expressed admiration for his professional achievements.

“His dad was a lawyer, and passed away when he was in middle school,” Waye said. “I’m so proud that he kind of followed in his dad’s footsteps. His dad would be so proud of him.”

As a law clerk, Treaster’s job primarily consists of writing, a passion he has carried with him from high school into his adult life.

“The challenge with law is to take these laws that are really complicated and try to say it in a way that makes sense,” Treaster said. “I love writing and trying to explain things in a way that makes sense to both the lawyers that are in here every day, but also people who are outside the system.”

Though many of Treaster’s original interests from high school are still of importance to him, he has grown and developed from his time away from the school.

“I’ve changed in a lot of ways,” Treaster said. “I’ve obviously grown up, and you just grow up the more years you have on this planet. My views on different world events has changed, my skills and the things I like to do have changed and developed and my relationships have changed.”

Though his life has drastically changed since high school—since then, Treaster has earned a political science degree, graduated from law school, obtained a job from the United States District Court of Kansas and married his college sweetheart—Waye said she will always think of Treaster as the young boy who lived next door.

“His mom just moved away from us, and so we had a big party where the kids all played wiffle ball in the yard one last time,” Waye said. “The youngest one is like 25 now. It’s amazing that they’ve grown up to be such neat young men.”

Reflecting on his time as a high school student, Treaster said his experience at Mill Valley helped him realize his ambitions, and will continue to impact him as he continues to pursue his goals of potentially entering a private practice or work in the areas of civil rights and employment law later in life.

“I’m not playing for the Royals, so no, my life is not how I would have hoped,” Treaster said. “How I planned it, maybe. If I was talking to myself 10 years ago right now, it wouldn’t surprise me a ton to know I went to law school, and I think I’d be excited about where I’m at.”