Forest Park seniors spotlight academics, careers and postgraduation plans

A senior class built around career pathways

Forest Park’s latest senior spotlight is less a simple honor roll recap than a snapshot of where the school is sending its students next. The profiles point to a class built around work experience, athletic leadership, technical training and college plans, with names like Makayli Carlson, Aiden Johnson, Hannah Ruppert, Ava Fischer, Jonnie Ketola, Elizabeth Ayers, Ella Gasperich, Dalaney Wagner, Lilly Post, Bradly Jochem and Keenan Dobson-Donati showing just how wide that spread is.

That range matters in a place like Crystal Falls because it says something concrete about Forest Park’s identity. The school is not just producing strong students, it is producing future teachers, nurses, engineers, trades workers and community leaders who have already spent years balancing class, activities and local jobs.

Makayli Carlson’s record is built on steady effort

Makayli Carlson stands out first for consistency. She has been involved in softball, basketball, marching band and concert band, and she said she has made the honor roll every time during high school, a record that reflects the kind of discipline that carries beyond the classroom.

Her schedule also shows how deeply Forest Park students often stay tied to the local economy. Carlson has worked at Slivensky Hardware and Lumber all four years, mostly after school and on weekends, while still keeping up with sports and music. That combination of academic success, work and extracurricular commitment makes her profile feel especially rooted in daily life in Iron County.

Carlson’s next step points toward teaching

Carlson plans to attend Edgewood University to study Elementary Education, a choice that fits the steady, service-oriented pattern in her profile. Edgewood’s elementary education major is designed for students interested in teaching kindergarten through ninth grade and can lead to elementary education and ESL licenses, which gives her a direct path into a classroom career.

That detail matters because it shows how senior plans are tied to practical outcomes, not just aspirations. For families watching where Forest Park graduates go next, Carlson is one example of a student turning years of local schooling and part-time work into a future profession that could bring her back into schools serving younger children.

Aiden Johnson is heading straight into the trades

Aiden Johnson’s profile is built around hands-on preparation. He said he took Welding 1 as a junior and Building Trades at the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District technical education center as a senior, putting him on a path that starts with high school courses and leads directly into skilled work.

He also plans to go into the trades after high school, which gives his coursework immediate economic relevance. In a region where dependable skilled labor matters to construction, homebuilding and maintenance work, Johnson’s training represents one of the clearest workforce pipelines in the senior package.

The technical center gives Johnson job-ready experience

The Dickinson-Iron Technical Education Center is designed to help students transfer academic knowledge into today’s technological world, and Johnson’s courses show how that plays out in practice. The Building Trades program gives students carpentry and construction skills through participation in building a quality home, while the Welding program prepares students for entry-level job skills or further technical-college study.

Johnson’s interests outside class fit the same practical profile. He is part of the Iron Area Health Foundation Student Leadership Team and said he enjoys hunting, fishing, cooking and spending time outdoors, a mix that reflects the region’s working landscape as much as his future job plans.

Hannah Ruppert is aiming for nursing

Hannah Ruppert’s postgraduation plans point to healthcare. She plans to explore Bay de Noc Community College’s nursing program at the Escanaba campus and eventually earn a registered nursing license, a route that connects a local student to one of the region’s most dependable career fields.

That choice also places her on a structured academic track. Bay College says its Associate Degree in Nursing program is approved by the Michigan State Board of Nursing and accredited by ACEN, and that the RN program is a five-semester program that prepares students to be registered nurses. For a student looking for a direct path into healthcare, that is a clear and practical next step.

Bay College offers a fast route into a stable profession

Ruppert’s plan reflects a larger trend in how local graduates are thinking about college. Instead of treating higher education as a vague destination, she is looking at a specific nursing program with a defined timeline and a credential that leads to work.

That kind of decision has obvious value in Iron County, where access to medical care and long-term staffing stability matter to families across the region. A student moving from Forest Park into a registered nursing program is not only building a career, she is stepping toward a profession that is deeply connected to local quality of life.

Ava Fischer brings leadership and athletic success together

Ava Fischer’s story adds another layer to the senior class. She is 18 and said she has lived in Crystal Falls her entire life, which makes her profile especially familiar to local readers who have watched her grow into one of Forest Park’s most visible student leaders.

Her record is unusually broad. Fischer has been class treasurer for four years and volleyball captain for two years, was named Miss UP Volleyball for the 2025-2026 season and earned first-team all-state honors, all while completing advanced coursework in Physics, Chemistry, Anatomy, Calculus and Mechatronics at the local tech center.

Fischer’s plans reach into engineering and college volleyball

Fischer plans to attend Milwaukee School of Engineering to study biomedical and electrical engineering and play volleyball, a combination that signals both academic ambition and athletic continuation. She also planned to work at George Young’s during the summer before college, adding another local work experience to a profile already heavy on responsibility.

Her athletic influence has extended beyond volleyball as well. Spring sports coverage identified her among Forest Park’s track senior leaders, another sign that she has been one of the school’s most versatile competitors and public-facing student leaders.

The rest of the group reinforces Forest Park’s range

The full senior spotlight includes more than the profiles detailed here, with Jonnie Ketola, Elizabeth Ayers, Ella Gasperich, Dalaney Wagner, Lilly Post, Bradly Jochem and Keenan Dobson-Donati also part of the broader Forest Park class being recognized. That variety is the point of the package: the school’s strongest seniors are not moving in one direction, but into a mix of college, technical training, work and service.

That broader pattern has become a familiar spring ritual in Iron County. The paper ran a similar Forest Park seniors feature on May 13, 2025, and also recognized Iron Area Health Foundation Student Leadership Team seniors from Forest Park and West Iron County after their April 30 meeting last year, underscoring how graduation-season coverage now tracks both achievement and readiness.

What Forest Park’s senior class says about the school

Taken together, these profiles show a school that is producing students with clear next steps and real-world experience already in hand. Carlson is headed toward elementary classrooms, Johnson toward the trades, Ruppert toward nursing and Fischer toward engineering, while the rest of the class rounds out a picture of a small school with wide ambitions.

That is what makes the annual senior spotlight resonate in Crystal Falls. It shows that Forest Park’s academic identity is not only about grades, but about how well students are prepared to leave with a plan, a work ethic and a place in the regional economy.