Not long ago, Janelle Walkden ’25 considered law school and a legal career beyond her reach.
Raised in rural Ohio in a single-parent household, Walkden was the first generation on her mother’s side of the family to attend college. She chose Bowling Green State University because it offered her an academic scholarship. She graduated in 2017 with a degree in political science.
“Obviously, law school is the number-one thing you’re supposed to do with a political science degree,” Walkden says. “But I was never going to law school. Ever.”
Despite that declaration, Walkden is scheduled to graduate from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2025, after which she intends to launch a career in environmental law.
Finding her passion
After college, Walkden got married and moved with her husband to Colorado, where he studied to be a park ranger environmentalist at Colorado State University. She worked in a real estate office, then shifted to a job in the Larimer County Clerk and Recorders office. It was there, Walkden says, that she began thinking about law school and started taking practice LSATs online.
Soon after, an opportunity arose in the Larimer County District Attorney’s office. Her experience in that position was life changing, Walkden says, and law school became a burning ambition. Her husband completed his undergraduate studies, and the couple contemplated a move in line with Walkden’s choice of law school. They wanted to return to the Midwest, and when the offer came from the University of Minnesota — with the gift of the Bill ’68 and Carol Tempest Scholarship — her decision was made. Other schools made offers, but, she says, “The Tempest Scholarship is pretty much what sold it for me.”
A gift inspired by experience
Bill Tempest ’68, a native New Yorker, practiced law for 27 years after graduating from Minnesota Law, mostly as an in-house attorney with several high-tech firms. He is retired and living in Dallas, Texas, with his wife Carol, his high school sweetheart.
Tempest says that he and Carol, a former teacher, created a scholarship fund at Minnesota Law because they are strong believers in education and in sharing resources when you have them.
“Carol and I have both been in a position where we had lots of ambition and not a lot of money,” he says. “When we were married, I think our major asset was the 1964 Volkswagen Beetle that Carol’s dad gave her as a graduation present. So, we have a lot of empathy for people with big ambitions and not a lot of money to get there, and this is our way of helping out in that regard.”
Leaving a mark
When Walkden arrived at Minnesota Law in 2022, she already had a clear goal. “I specifically came to law school because I care about the environment,” she says. “I want to be an environmental lawyer.”
She received a summer internship as a law clerk with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency after her first year, and then in October 2023 she landed a part-time job as a law clerk with the Ramsey County Attorney’s office.
The Tempests are thrilled with Walkden’s successes and are excited to hear about her education and career goals. “I’m a preacher’s kid,” Bill says. “My dad was a pastor, and in our house both of my parents were the first generations of their families to go to college. So, education was kind of a second religion in our house. Carol was a teacher and we’re both all in on education. We’re both 80 years old now, and we’d like to leave a mark by the side of the road. We’ve got a lot more years behind us than in front of us, and this is a way to leave a corner of the world at least a little bit better than we found it.”
Looking ahead to what she hopes will be a productive career, Walkden offers a similar thought. “I grew up in a lower income bracket in a very rural area,” she says. “So, now that I have had such privilege to get to where I am, my biggest thing is making sure that I’m using that to give back as much as possible and try to make as many people’s lives better as I possibly can.”