Coupeville seniors head to college with honors, scholarships and big plans

The Class of 2026 is sending out a small-town message with a wide reach. Finn Price is heading to Whitman College to study film and keep swimming, Jeann Nitta is bound for Western Washington University, Easton Green is aiming at dentistry, and George Spear is leaving for the U.S. Air Force Academy after earning appointments to all three military academies. For Coupeville, their next steps are more than personal milestones. They are a snapshot of what the town is producing, and a reminder that the path out of Island County often begins with the people, programs and expectations that shape students long before graduation.

A class with academic weight and real financial lift

Coupeville High School’s Class of 2026 had 53 graduates, a small number by most standards but one that packed a strong academic punch. The class brought in more than $180,000 in scholarship money, a sign that the school’s highest achievers were not only earning grades, but turning those grades into concrete postsecondary options. Senior awards night was held May 27, 2026, and graduation was scheduled for June 7, marking the formal close of a year in which the top students translated effort into opportunity.

That scholarship picture also reflects something larger about the community around Coupeville. The Coupeville Lions Club has spent 19 years building its annual scholarship auction into a durable local pipeline, awarding more than $580,000 to 433 students over that span. In a town this size, that kind of sustained backing matters. It helps explain how students from a Whidbey Island school can leave for college, military service and specialized training with something to stand on besides aspiration alone.

Among the class leaders, valedictorian Teagan Calkins topped the list, with George Spear named salutatorian in May 2026. Finn Price, Easton Green and Jeann Nitta were also among the 10 students with the highest GPAs. Their plans now spread in different directions, but the academic foundation they leave with is the common thread tying their stories together.

Finn Price and the long road from Coupeville to Whitman

Finn Price’s story is built on repetition, travel and stubborn commitment. He will attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where he plans to study film and continue swimming for an NCAA Division III program. Before that next chapter, he capped a remarkable high school run by finishing 22nd in the 50-yard freestyle at the 2B state meet in Seattle with a time of 24.63 seconds.

That result was the culmination of a routine that said as much about Island County geography as it did about athletic talent. Coupeville High School does not have its own pool or aquatic program, so Price spent the last four years making the daily trip to Mukilteo to train and compete with Kamiak High School. In a town where access shapes opportunity, that commute became part of his identity as an athlete. He qualified for the state swimming championships three times, something he counted among his proudest accomplishments, and also took part in track, Associated Student Body, National Honor Society and Eagle Scouts.

His path makes a larger point about Coupeville’s place in the region. Some ambitions can be pursued close to home. Others require leaving the island every day, or eventually leaving it altogether, in order to keep developing. Price managed both, and his next stop suggests he is carrying that discipline with him.

Easton Green’s quieter kind of achievement

Easton Green’s plans are less public-facing but no less revealing about the class’s range. He plans to study dentistry, and he said finishing in the top 10 was a point of pride made possible by family support and steady effort. That combination, support and consistency, is often what gives a student from a small district the confidence to aim for a demanding professional field.

Green’s story helps fill in the middle of Coupeville’s graduating class, beyond the marquee names and headline-grabbing destinations. Not every strong student is headed to a military academy or a Division III athletic program. Some are building toward health care, a field that demands patience, precision and long-term discipline. In that sense, Green’s next step fits the larger theme of the class: a group of students carrying the habits of high school into very different futures.

Jeann Nitta’s route through work, service and self-confidence

Jeann Nitta’s path is the most personal of the group, and in some ways the most instructive. She will attend Western Washington University with plans to pursue early childhood education. What stands out in her story is not just where she is going, but how she got there. She said her growth through high school came less from awards than from overcoming social anxiety, staying involved through cross country and track support roles, and finding confidence through friends, family and school staff.

Nitta’s resume outside the classroom shows how much she carried while moving through high school. Local reporting says she worked part-time at McDonald’s, as a nanny and as a house cleaner. She also volunteered extensively at her church and at school activities, making service part of her daily life rather than a line on an application. On May 12, 2026, she and Aiden O’Neill were honored as Coupeville Lions Club Students of the Quarter for the fourth quarter of the 2025-2026 school year, recognition that fit a student whose accomplishments were built as much on persistence as on presentation.

Her decision to pursue early childhood education connects naturally to that background. The people who helped her find her footing in high school helped shape the work she wants to do next, and that is exactly the kind of link between local experience and future public service that towns like Coupeville depend on.

George Spear, leadership and the military path

George Spear’s future is the most institutionally defined of the group. After earning appointments to all three U.S. military academies, he will attend the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. In May 2026, he was named salutatorian of the Class of 2026, a distinction that matched a high school career centered on leadership, civic involvement and student voice.

Spear served in LEO Club and Associated Student Body leadership, founded the Coupeville Tournament Chess Team, and represented students on the school district board. That role matters in a district where the Coupeville School Board has five members, including three geographic-district directors and two at-large directors. Student representation does not replace adult governance, but it does create a formal channel for student perspective inside the district’s decision-making structure. Spear’s successor as student representative, sophomore Marin Winger, was selected in May 2026 to a two-year term.

The combination of military ambition and public service fits Spear’s record. He did not just collect honors; he worked inside the school’s civic machinery, from clubs to the board table. That is a meaningful part of what Coupeville is sending outward this year: students who understand leadership as participation, not just achievement.

What these graduates say about Coupeville’s future

Taken together, the stories of Price, Green, Nitta and Spear show a class defined by persistence, service and different versions of ambition. Their advice to younger students is practical and personal, centered on patience, effort, growth and the value of the high school experience itself. That sounds simple, but in a small town it is often the difference between a student drifting and a student leaving with a direction.

Coupeville’s size is part of why these achievements stand out. In a school where students share classrooms, sports, service groups and board meetings, their accomplishments are not isolated. They reflect a community that pushes students toward different futures while keeping them tied to the same island network that raised them. Some may return to Island County. Others may build their lives elsewhere. Either way, this year’s graduates are leaving Coupeville with something harder to measure than scholarships or GPAs: a sense that their town expected them to matter, and prepared them to do it.