“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them,” Walt Disney once said. Traverse City’s graduating class of 2026 is filled with courageous dreamers, just a few of whom are detailed below.

Liam Bauer, West Senior High
Profile: Meet one of the stars of the Titan music department. Bauer played the lead roles of Joseph in last year’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Seymour in this year’s Little Shop of Horrors, and sings as part of Choral-Aires, Chorale, and Westmen. He’s no less a star in the classroom, with a 3.87 GPA and an AP-heavy course schedule.
Plans: Bauer will enroll at the Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University, with plans to major in behavioral neuroscience and applied health sciences, plus “a minor in psychology in German.” Armed with six years of study in German, Bauer hopes his college experience will include a stint studying abroad. “All of that together is going to put me on a really solid track to become a physician’s assistant, hopefully specializing in the mental health field,” he says.
Highlight: “Being part of the choral program taught me so much,” Bauer says. “It taught me how to be a good human, how to always show up with good work ethic, how to be accepting of all people, and that everybody brings something to the table. It was a place I could go back to in troubled times and regain strength and confidence.”

Gus Bielman, Traverse City Central
Profile: At Central’s recent honors convocation, Bielman’s classmates voted him the winner of the spirit hall of fame award, “for demonstrating Trojan pride throughout the community.” It wasn’t surprising. Bielman was a constant presence at Central athletic events, leading the student section in cheers and even donning the Trojan mascot costume. But Principal Ben Berger also praises Bielman’s “brilliant engineering mind,” which made him an endlessly inquisitive part of the school’s SCI-MA-TECH program – and the recipient of this year’s department award for STEM.
Plans: Bielman spent last summer interning at the Thomas Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia, known worldwide for its particle accelerator. The experience got him even more fired up about STEM, and now, he’s off to Michigan Tech to study engineering.
Highlight: “I hated math when I was in eighth grade, and I hated science,” Bielman laughs. It was the influence of Keith Forton, Central’s retired physics teacher, that got him to think differently. “We had a section on underwater ROVs, where we basically coded a submersible, and then we took them to the beach and used them to do water quality testing,” he continues. “It was such a fun way to get introduced to STEM, and it totally changed my mind.”

Bailey Brown, Traverse City High School
Profile: If you’d asked a few years ago, Brown probably would have told you her chances of graduating high school were slim. “I was at West Senior High and I was just a really angry kid,” Brown says. “I was failing a lot of my classes, and had kind of given up on school.” Moving to TC High changed everything, giving Brown more one-on-one time with teachers. She got back on track, and will graduate in good standing this afternoon.
Plans: After touring the automotive technology department at NMC, Brown plans to pursue a career in that world. “I’ve been working on cars with my dad since I was a kid,” she says. “I have experienced a lot of negative treatment when going to get parts for my truck – I think a lot of those businesses treat women badly – so I’d love to open an auto parts store where women feel comfortable asking questions and getting the things they need.”
Highlight: “I’ve been really grateful for Mrs. Essenberg these past couple of years,” Brown says, referring to one of her favorite teachers. “She teaches a community outreach class where we go out into the community and help people in need, and I’ve really enjoyed that.”

Eva Donahey, Interlochen
Profile: Donahey learned about Interlochen from her voice teacher in Pittsburgh, who herself was an Interlochen alum. Already a performing arts veteran before she even reached high school – “I’ve been singing on stages since I was in kindergarten,” she says – Donahey convinced her parents to let her enroll at Interlochen as a musical theater major. She’s been a consistent fixture in Academy shows for the past four years – including, most recently, as Sally Simpson in the school’s presentation of The Who’s Tommy.
Plans: Donahey will attend the Norwalk Conservancy in Connecticut, where she’ll study acting for the stage and screen, with a minor in musical theater. “I'm extremely thrilled to be able to continue doing theater next year, and I'm especially excited to be so close to New York City and to audition for productions during the school year,” she says.
Highlight: Last August, Donahey and 11 other Arts Academy students traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland to stage a production of the musical Brave Irene at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show, which is based on a children’s book of the same name by Shrek author William Stieg, afforded Donahey and her classmates the opportunity of “using theater to inspire young artists” – something she describes as “a magical experience.”

Addie Gelinas, TC Christian
Profile: Gelinas has been a part of the TC Christian community since her family moved to Traverse City from Kalkaska in second grade. She’s a three-year member of the school’s varsity basketball team, and a four-year member of student council. She’s also a competitive equestrian enthusiast, riding her horse, Willow, in show jumping and dressage events. “I started riding as early as my mom could hold me up on the back of a horse, so I’ve been doing it my whole life,” she says. “I’m still riding five times a week, getting ready for summer competitions.”
Plans: “I plan to go to NMC for two years to work toward my early childhood education certificate, and then potentially will head off to Cornerstone, Cedarville, or Southern Christian University to get my ministry degree,” Gelinas says. She hopes to “pursue early childhood ministry,” and to become “a camp director or early childhood director for some church organization.”
Highlight: “Every year, the seniors get an opportunity to go on a mission trip, and this year we went to Belize,” Gelinas says. “I love that my high school gave me the opportunity to go there and minister to all these people, and just see a different part of the world.”

Soren Gest, West Senior High
Profile: It was all STEM all the time for Gest – from West’s SCI-MA-TECH program, to the engineering academy at the Career-Tech Center, to dual enrolling in math and technology courses through NMC. He’s also worked as a technology assistant at Cordia Senior Living since freshman year, and interned last summer as part of the quality control department at Clark Manufacturing. It all stems (pun intended) from Gest’s love for competitive robotics, which has been a major part of his life since second grade.
Plans: Gest is headed to Michigan Tech in the fall, where he plans to earn his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. “I’m thinking I’m either going to be an engineer professionally, or an airline pilot like my dad is currently,” he says.
Highlight: Gest loved his internship at Clark Manufacturing. “I had just learned a lot about CAD (computer-aided design) during my junior year, and then, over the summer, I was using those CAD skills to check parts that were being machined on the floor,” he says. “One time, I even caught an error in a batch of parts, and then I got to see the process of how we fixed that error and made sure the parts were good.”

Lucy Jones, West Senior High
Profile: “In high school, I tried to stay as busy as I could,” Jones laughs. She succeeded. As a freshman, Jones joined the tennis team, despite having never played the sport before. This season, she captained the team as it won its first-ever Big North Conference title and booked its first trip to the state finals. She was also an active member of National Honor Society and Key Club, a consistent volunteer presence around town, an assistant teacher for NMC’s summertime College for Kids program, and a co-founder of West’s Environmental Club, which is leading an initiative to install solar panels at the school for the first time.
Plans: “I am committed to the University of Michigan, but if everything goes the way I want it to, I will defer,” Jones says. She’s applied for a program called Tilting Futures, which – if she’s accepted – would either take her to Malaysia for environmental and sustainability work, or to Africa for more purely humanitarian efforts.
Highlight: Jones points to an annual tradition at West called “Beautification Day,” for which she’s served as a student leader the past two years. “It’s one of my favorite days of the school year, because we all just get to be outside, just gardening and cleaning up the school,” she says.

Kaden Klooster, Grand Traverse Academy
Profile: Thanks in part to a rigorous dual enrollment schedule that netted him two-dozen credits from NMC and Ferris State University, Klooster ends his high school career as GTA’s class valedictorian. He was also named MVP of the school’s basketball team this season.
Plans: Years ago, Klooster started handling sound mixing and production for Redeeming Grace, a church on the west side of town his family runs. The experience got him interest in audio production, a passion he plans to pursue next year through NMC’s audio tech program. “I’ve loved music my whole life, and I see a few different career paths I could take,” he says – whether that’s touring with a band and mixing their sound, live or becoming a full-fledged music producer.
Highlight: Klooster put his sound (and film!) production skills to the test this year as part of “Frost Fest,” an annual spirit week that takes place at GTA each winter. “There was a competition where each grade had to make their own music video to an assigned song,” Klooster says. He produced the senior class’s project, a remake of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” video, and calls it “one of the most fun experiences I’ve had with my fellow classmates.”

Andrew Kohl, Traverse City Central
Profile: “Andrew has quietly leveraged NMC better than any student in recent memory,” says Central Principal Ben Berger. By participating in NMC’s early college and dual enrollment programs, Kohl racked up over 30 college credits, including everything from meteorology to macroeconomics to music appreciation. He’s also a budding pilot, having gotten his start with the Experimental Aircraft Association’s “Young Eagles” program in middle school. He’s now training with Giving Wings Aviation here in Traverse City, racking up flight hours in anticipation of his post-high school path.
Plans: Kohl will continue his pilot training at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. While his career goals remain “up in the air,” he envisions himself flying for a major airline, or maybe piloting corporate jets.
Highlight: Kohl loved being a part of the evolving lacrosse program at TCAPS. “I started off my sophomore year, and just felt super accepted,” he says. “That was our last year of the “Traverse City United” varsity, before we transitioned into our individual programs at Central and West. Getting to have that brotherhood with my teammates on both sides of town has been really special. To this day, when we play West, it’s heated, but it’s mostly for bragging rights. There’s still a lot of community there.”

McKenna Wilcox, Traverse City Central
Profile: Wilcox spent much of her high school years giving back. As a member of both National Honor Society and Key Club – both volunteer-heavy student organizations – Wilcox racked up a whopping 60 hours of volunteer time per school year. She brought that spirit of generosity to Central’s choir program, where she sang with Choral-Aires and Bel Canto and helped underclassmen along as part of the program’s mentor-mentee program.
Plans: It’s the University of Michigan for Wilcox, who plans to major in psychology with a minor in political science. “I’d really like to pursue a career in family law and utilize my degree in psychology for that,” she says. “I took AP psychology this year. I’d never taken a psych class before, but I loved every moment I spent learning about it, and I didn’t want that experience to end in high school.”
Highlight: For Wilcox, learning from Central High School math teacher Julie Puckett was a bright spot. “I had her my junior year for AP Precalculus, and then I had her this year for AP Calculus AB, and I think she is genuinely the most talented teacher I've ever had,” Wilcox explains. “I’ve always struggled with math, but she’s so passionate about the subject that it becomes contagious.”

Sam Wildfong, St. Francis
Profile: Wildfong continued the long tradition of athletic excellence at St. Francis. Though he battled injuries early in his high school career, the pitcher/catcher came back to lead the Gladiators to a Division 3 state championship last year, earning himself all-state honors in the process. Wildfong was perhaps even more impressive in the classroom, scoring a 1400 on his SAT and a 32 on his ACT, and graduating with a 4.3 GPA – good for salutatorian status.
Plans: Recruiters came a-calling for Wildfong, giving him his pick of schools to continue his baseball career. “I knew I wanted to find something that would challenge my academics as well,” he says, which had him eyeing the Ivy League. He chose Columbia University, where he’ll play ball and major in engineering.
Highlight: Winning a state title in baseball was always going to be Wildfong’s key high school memory, but not for the reason you might think. “Winning was great, but the best part was after the state title, when we had a team sleepover on our home baseball field,” he tells The Ticker. “We went fishing; we had a campfire and made s’mores; we set off fireworks on the infield. It was just such a fun experience.”