FHC Grads: Where are they now?

Although the human population was, in the mid-twentieth century, divided into five main groups, there exists in our world thousands of different ethnic groups, religions, and cultures. No two people are exactly alike. Growing up in Forest Hills and attending FHC, alumni Emma Beck didn’t get many opportunities to meet people who weren’t like her. Although adopted, Emma spent the majority of h...

When Celia Kaechele signed up for Mr. McClees Model UN class as a high schooler, she had no idea it would lead her to Croatia.  Celia traveled to Croatia during the summer of 2017 to spend a month taking law classes, an important stop on a path she started back in that Model UN class.  “Taking Model UN with Mr. McClees was what started me down the path that led to my career as an attorney,” Celia sa...

A young Ashley Kooistra sat in nervous excitement among her fellow fifth graders. It was a day almost every fifth grader looks forward too, the day the music teachers from the high school come to Central Woodlands to assist students in picking out the instrument they would play as sixth graders.  For many students, it’s their first look into the musical world. Some will stay. Some will leave.  ...

For all students, there comes a day when they walk out of FHC never to return as a student again. Every time they step foot in school after will involve signing the guest list and carrying a guest pass. Some students make that voyage out of high school confidently; they know what direction their life is headed in and can stride forward with ease. For others, that step out of FHC is clouded by conf...

Humzah Azeem wore slides to graduation. Students might remember hearing the slap of his shoes as he walked across the stage and thinking to themselves, “he’s going to have an interesting life.” It may have only been about four years since his graduation, but it sure has been interesting. In fact, his word for life so far is “unorthodox.” “Life after high school has been unorthodox...

Emily D'Amato was likely the object of intense jealousy in her time as a student at FHC. She is one of a minuscule group of people who, throughout the course of her years at FHC, developed a passion that led her to the field she is currently in. “When I was a freshman in high school, I had no idea where I would be now,” Emily said. “It was through classes at FHC, [like] AP computer scien...

Freedom. One of the many perks granted to you when you graduate high school. For Hannah Kos, it’s one of the most noticeable and drastic differences between her life now, and her life a year ago. “It's so weird to think back to high school and remember having to sign out or ask to go to the bathroom,” Hannah said. “Whereas now, I have to make the conscious decision to wake up, go to school, a...

Charlie Pynnonen is a prime example that the risk is worth the reward when it comes to pursuing what you want in life. This past summer, after a year of working in a job that didn’t line up with what Charlie wanted in life, he made the decision to move to New York City. No new job awaited him. All he knew was that there was something else out there for him. “When I moved to Pennsylvania r...

FHC graduate Erica Fischer likes school. So much so that after twelve years in the lower level school system, she moved right on to an undergraduate program and then to a graduate program. While her love of school may seem foreign to many, it is a necessity for Erica if she hopes to accomplish her goal of becoming an entomologist. “There's a couple of reasons why I decided to stick with school,” Erica said. �...

For FHC alumni John Pynnonen, college has been a time of growth and adventure. Like many others who have stepped out of FHC’s halls and into the real world, he has a desire to make the world a better place; however, the way he has gone about it has been far different from his fellow alumni. “I made a music video of the worm team as a joke, and one of my professors loved it,” John said. “Th...

FHC alumna Emily Jenkins stands on the cliffs of California’s Highway 1 overlooking a beach of elephant seals and smiles gleefully into a camera. Since moving to California for schooling at Point Loma Nazarene University, Emily has gone rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park, sightseeing in San Francisco, enjoyed the snow in Mammoth Lakes, explored Yosemite National Park, spied on sea otters and s...

FHC Alumna Reagan Cool sat aboard the Washington D.C.’s Metro system as it zipped her from her internship, where she just spent the last seven hours, to the Hillsdale Campus on Capitol Hill for her night class, where she was going to spend her next three. This busy schedule is the result of Reagan’s participation in the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program (WHIP), a unique opportunity g...

To know what you want to spend your life doing at a young age is a gift. To have a childhood—a schooling—which fosters that passion and that calling is a miracle. To find yourself fresh out of college in one of the biggest recessions in U.S. history is not the future every student imagines for themselves.  When FHC alumni Kit Lang graduated from Central Michigan University in 2008 with a Bac...

A young Gabriela Saldivia sits in the passenger's seat of her father's car. Soccer practice has finished for the night, and the two of them are driving home in the coming twilight. Playing over the radio is NPR —the background to many of Gabriela and her father drives together.  At the time, Gabriela had no idea that one day it would be her voice filing late-night drives. “I did grow up...