In the 1960s and 1970s, if you lived in Michigan, you probably aspired to work in the auto-industry. It was Brian Shindorf's plan after graduating high school, but in the early 1980s, the bottom fell out of the industry and jobs were flailing.
So he traveled around the country for a year before settling in Missouri, where he met his wife and started working for the St. Joseph Public School District.
He was working as a school bus driver when his neighbor and the high school principal called him and asked him if he'd be interested in being a custodian. Shindorf went in for an interview the next day and was hired at 21 years old.
It was a job, something to hold him over until he decided what his career path would be, but he was quickly inspired by the teachers and students around him.
"I was pushing a dust mop down the hall and watching kids in the classroom enjoy learning," he said. "How could you not aspire to do that?"
Shindorf said he doesn't want to knock being a custodian - he loved the job, but he knew being a teacher was his calling after he started working at Humboldt Elementary School, where he later became a fourth-grade teacher after seven years of working days as a janitor and taking night classes.
"I never thought about quitting," he said of the many years it took him to get his diploma. "The most discouraging part was that it took so long. Most people go to school for four years, and I was in for four, then five and six. I'm married. I'm a dad. It was hard. It speaks to the fact if you want to accomplish something you can do it."
At the end of this month he'll be the new director of elementary education at Jefferson City Public Schools. He uprooted his family and moved three and a half hours away because he said he was inspired by the leadership team at the district.
Cathy Foster currently holds the position and is retiring after 35 years with the district.
Shindorf was a fourth-grade teacher for five years and taking classes at Northwest Missouri State University to earn a master's in school administration. When he first began at Humboldt, being a teacher was going to be his life-long career. Then one of the school administrators started mentoring him and giving him more responsibilities. His lens changed, and he thought about moving into a leadership role.
He was a principal at Webster Elementary for five years while earning a specialist degree at Northwest and was principal at Bessie Ellison Elementary for two years before becoming the director of elementary education at the district in 2006.
When he applied for the same position at JCPS, he said he left knowing he wanted to be part of the leadership team. JCPS is smaller than St. Joseph by about 2,500 students, something he also sees as a positive.
Some days he misses being in the classroom and could potentially go back to teaching at the end of his career. One of his favorite parts was engaging students in school and watching them grow and develop. But being an administrator has its rewards too.
He said he isn't naive enough to have a list of things he wants to change before starting his new position, but he has a goal in mind.
"I want to be a servant leader for people when I'm here," he said. "Education is a difficult field to be in whether you're an administrator, teacher or custodian. I want to be someone others can rely on and can seek advice from."
Shindorf moved to the Capital City with his wife, Carrie, and their corgi, Pippa, and cat, Annie.