Caroline Lynch, 21, has education in her blood.
So it’s not surprising that when she graduated from Kansas State in December 2012, she ended up working for a retired schoolteacher and freshmen state representative, Donna Pfautsch, R-Lee’s Summit.
Lynch, who graduated with a degree in Political Science as a pre-law student, decided to shift gears and focus on education.
She is pursuing her Master’s Degree in special education, which means she will fit in nicely with the rest of the Lynch family. Her mother is an administrator working in early childhood education. Her brother is earning his Master’s Degree in education and her sister is a fifth grade teacher.
“Education is just so important,” Lynch said. “I think I’d like to teach and maybe become an assistant superintendent and then hopefully come back and run [for office] eventually.”
Lynch said she would like to focus on curriculum as an assistant superintendent.
Education is not the only thing in her blood. Her grandfather, Ralph Uthlaut Jr, was elected as a state representative in 1962 and served until his senate race in 1972, where he won and served until 1988.
“I guess a lot of it is a family thing,” Lynch said. “The passion is in the blood.”
While she may be set on seeking an elected office one day, she is not set on doing it in Missouri.
Whether she ends up moving to Nashville, the capitol of Tennessee and current home city of her longtime boyfriend, or back to Topeka, Kansas, where she interned in the Capitol last year, Lynch appears determined to run for office.
“I think there are a lot of issues with our education system and a lot to be fixed,” Lynch said. “But there’s never a clear path. It’s not the kind of thing where if you change one thing, all the problems are gone.”
She said she is passionate about early childhood education, which the state currently does not fund. So she will be working, in some capacity, to fix that. During the summer she’ll return to her current home in Belton, Mo., to do district work for Pfautsch.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.