Traverse City News and Events

All In A School Year: A 'Good News' Report Card

May 30, 2015

The 2014-15 school year is nearly in the books – with thousands of area high school students soon donning caps and gowns, young ones finishing off their first year of school and many other achievements in between. In the spirit of good news, The Ticker gathered memorable school year moments from a handful of local schools. Here are a few highlights:

Grand Traverse Academy
 - One of the school’s foreign exchange students had an injury at a track meet requiring major surgery. Instead of going home early, she wanted to stay so that she could attend prom and graduation. The students paid a nominal fee to wear jeans instead of their uniforms for a day and raised almost $1,200 to help with medical expenses.

 - A high school robotics teams – comprised of Alirea Junga, Phillip Bourgeois, Noah Binsfield, Jonas Rein and Grace Biehl – qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville.

 - Abby Fifarek signed a letter of intent to run cross-country at Northern Michigan University this fall. She is only the second GTA runner to compete at the collegiate level.

Greenspire School
 - Students raised more than $3,200 for local, national and international charities this year through student-initiated, student-coordinated community service projects including two overnight “lock ins,” a Haunted Forest, a 10-week Jeopardy Tournament, two FarmRaiser fundraisers and a holiday season project called “The Giving Season” in partnership with Father Fred.

 - The school earned numerous grants this academic year, including $7,000 from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and $2,900 from Oryana Natural Foods to help pay for its first solar array.

 - English and World Languages instructor Erin Fitzpatrick was accepted into a prestigious outdoor education graduate program in Scotland and will be taking a three-semester leave from Greenspire. 

The Pathfinder School
 - Two veteran and beloved Pathfinder faculty members are retiring this year – Dawn Iott (elementary science) and Lynn Pavlov (1st grade). Both have created cherished traditions at the school, including the third grade rocket launch and the running of The Iditarod.

 - Artwork by two third graders ended up on a wall in the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The class partnered with the museum to develop original pieces and also held an art opening with GRAM representatives. Pathfinder is the first school in northern Michigan to partner with the museum on this program.

 - Pathfinder alum Andrew Bahle is headed to Norway on a Fulbright scholarship to study cortex functions at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools
 - St. Francis High School students continued the tradition of serving a community meal, GladMeals, each Saturday; the students shop for the food, prepare the meal, and serve it to 30-50 guests each weekend.

 - Each month, a jean day is held. Money raised has helped GladMeals, Boots for Kids, Firefighters' Children's Toy Drive, a Nigerian water well, parish food pantries, Grand Traverse Area Right to Life and more.

 - At least ten St. Francis seniors (16 percent of the class) are going on to play collegiate-level sports: Ryan Armour, Tanner Kaplan, Ty Lurvey, Grace Meachum, Gabby Morgan, Matt Seybert, Jimmy Smith, Sophie Spencer, Joe Studzinski and Robbie Williams.

 - Students from the high school participated in mission trips to Haiti, New Orleans, and Detroit (Capuchin Kitchen) this year, and will serve in Guatemala and Traverse City (Freedom Builders) this summer.

Traverse City Area Public Schools
 - Cam Sipple, captain of West Senior High’s soccer team and a leader in Student Senate, will fulfill a dream next fall when he goes to Western Michigan University to play Division 1 soccer for the Broncos.

 - Kristie Bach is closing the curtain on 23 years of excellence as the theater director at West Senior High. School officials and students say she pushed the limits and changed lives during her time at West.

 - Charlie Rogers has had quite a year at West. He took a tremendous course load, represented the school on both the Model UN and the West Robotics teams, got a 36 (the highest possible score) on his ACT and recently was elected Prom King!

 - Earlier this school year, there was a high school student struggling with anxiety and depression severely affecting school performance and attendance. By persistently and deliberately developing a meaningful relationship with this student, English teacher Aimee Cole started to help turn things around. The student is ending the year with 100 percent attendance, an A in Ms. Cole’s class and making up all the work from last quarter.

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