Senior Spotlight 2025: Adapting to where the ‘real world’ might take you

Seniors who transitioned back to in-person classes following the COVID-19 pandemic and adjusted to the Juneau School District consolidation are graduating this weekend and have high hopes for where change will take them next.

Graduation ceremonies are scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday for Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School students at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus. A 4 p.m. ceremony for Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé is scheduled for its graduates.

Among the many noteworthy students celebrating their achievements on that day are:

Peyton Edmunds, 17, IDEA Homeschool Juneau

Peyton Edmunds graduated from IDEA Homeschool on Friday, with her family handing over her diploma instead of a principal. Although she graduated through the homeschool program, she took classes at Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé up until her senior year, when she enrolled full-time at the University of Alaska Southeast.

“I think taking UAS classes this year was just exactly what I needed to do,” she said. “One thing I really struggled with a lot in high school was how little time you get with your teachers because you have these giant classes of 30 kids. When I took UAS classes, all the classes I had were like 15 people. A lot of the professors really care about you, what you’re doing and they’ll reach out, which is something that I had never had an experience with in high school. I ended up getting the best grades I ever had while I was taking classes at UAS in comparison to JDHS.”

Edmunds plans to study philosophy and political science in the fall through the pre-law program at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

“I hope to become a lawyer someday,” she said.

After graduating and before beginning college, Edmunds has big plans. In June, she will compete nationally as captain of the JDHS Drama, Debate and Forensics team. Her informative speech at state qualified her for the most prestigious speech and debate tournament in the world, which will take place in Des Moines, Iowa, “where you can frolic in the cornfields.” This year was the first time that Juneau won the state DDF tournament as a team. Edmunds said she was the primary liaison between the students and the coaches.

“The Juneau DDF team had a very successful year in comparison to all the years I’ve been in DDF,” she said. “I was able to lead meetings, collaborate with my peers and look at all their pieces while also working on mine. Leading all of the debate discussions was really cool. Throughout the year we had tons of wins, tons of successes. The regional meet was very successful for us. We took gold in almost anything you can think of. We almost won sweepstakes at regions. I personally won three events at regions. Then at state we also had a very successful meet.”

Edmunds is currently practicing her memorized 10-minute informative speech, “The Real Danger,” and helping her team raise money for the trip.

“I start off by talking about how there’s something called dihydrogen monoxide, which is very dangerous,” she said. “It’s tasteless, odorless, scentless — causes erosion in our hometown of Juneau. It kills 829,000 people annually, according to the UN. Then I reveal that DHMO is actually water. I segue that into talking about fake news with the rest of the speech. I talk about what fake news actually is, the history of fake news with the 2016 election cycle. Then I talk about how it’s flowed into prominence, social media, confirmation bias, etc. Then I finally talk about things that are currently being done to stop fake news.”

She said that to select her topic, she revised her winning state speech, which focused on the manipulation of statistics. After reviewing past winning speeches at nationals and hours of research, she broadened it to be more general.

For the past year and a half, Edmunds has been interning as the special project assistant for the commissioner’s office at the Department of Commerce Community and Economic Development. She said it taught her valuable office skills and allowed her to work on research projects.

Before heading to Oregon, Edmunds will spend July in Washington, D.C., for an internship with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). She said she looks forward to talking to the senator and her staff about cuts to National Park employees and transitioning away from unclean energy sources.

“I’m really excited to just experience D.C., especially with our current political climate, and just see what’s going on down there right now,” she said. “Meeting new people that have similar interests to me and looking forward to expanding my future career.”

While reflecting on her high school experience, she recounted how she discovered an interest in science after joining the club Ocean Science Bowl. Something meant to be for extra credit led her to be part of a winning team and inspired her to pursue environmental law.

“Understand that there isn’t one way to be successful,” she said in advice to underclassmen. “You don’t have to follow the exact path that your school counselor wants you to all the time. You don’t have to do National Honor Society, AP classes, varsity sports to get to the place you want to be. There are tons of different paths. If you want to take college classes, take college classes. If you want to join some random art club that has nothing to do with what you’re planning to do in the future, do that. You never know where it’s going to take you.”

Ryan Song, 18, Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé

Ryan Song spent much of his senior year trying to protect the ocean from plastics and the invasion of the golden star tunicate.

The soon-to-be graduate of JDHS said he developed a quick interest in ocean science soon after moving with his family from Vancouver, British Columbia, at the beginning of his freshman year. What he’s learned and experienced is his motivation to study chemistry and economics when he enters Duke University this fall.

“I think when I leave Juneau one thing I will remember it as is a place where I really got involved in not only the maritime industry and marine science, but also just being able to get involved in a lot of things that you wouldn’t be able to get involved anywhere,” he said.

“For instance, one thing that I do during my summers is marine debris removals, where sometimes I’ll go on expeditions,” he said. “I’ll go on a trip with a lot of professionals and we’ll collect plastic along local beaches in Alaska, or other days I’ll go to Sandy Beach. And I volunteer at NOAA’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project online. And so I’ll track data on Sandy Beach, for instance, and then I’ll upload all my data about anything plastic-related that washed up too.”

Those and other activities indicate how quickly Song embraced a range of interests upon arriving in an unfamiliar town.

“I would say a large part of my freshman year was trying to adjust from a really big city to a more smaller town like Juneau,” he said, adding, “we didn’t know anyone in the town and I think my first day in town was the freshman orientation.”

Four years later, Song is a U.S. Presidential Scholars Program candidate with a 4.0 GPA, who’s also been a part of award-winning groups, including being the school’s team captain at the National Ocean Sciences Bowl that won the state competition and finished eighth at nationals this month. The team’s research project was an invasive invertebrate species in Southeast Alaska called the golden star tunicate.

“A large part of why we chose that was because we wanted to do something really unique for the state competition because there’s like 13 other teams that were going to compete in the state,” he said. “The golden star tunicate is an invasive species that very recently appeared in Ketchikan and Sitka, like in the early 2000s, and so we thought it’d be an interesting topic to research.”

In addition to his science activities, Song was a three-time participant in the school’s Model United Nations Club, representing China, Ireland, and the Pitjantjatjara people who are among Central Australia’s Aboriginal population. He won a competition representing the latter during his junior year, which spurred further interest in Indigenous issues.

“I took a job at Sealaska Heritage Institute because I wanted to learn more about Native backgrounds, especially since Juneau has a lot of rich Alaska Native history,” he said. “I took a job over the summer last year and just spent the entire summer learning about Native history and then like teaching other tourists.”

The school’s consolidation with Thunder Mountain High School was a high-profile issue at the beginning of the year, but Song said he didn’t experience significant changes. The lunchroom wasn’t overly crowded since lots of students go off-campus, for example, and he said one beneficial aspect was a lot of resources such as honors and Advanced Placement courses expanded their offerings.

But one big change during Song’s senior year was his father, a South Korean national who moved to Juneau to take a job with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., experienced problems with his visa last year that resulted in Song’s parents relocating to Montreal. Song remained in Juneau with the supervisor of where he worked prior to his senior year.

Song said his family’s heritage will be part of the decor for his graduation cap.

“I’m going to put a lot of sentimental things related to me,” he said. In addition to a South Korean flag, “I’ve also put the Toronto Blue Jays on my grad cap because growing up watching the Toronto Blue Jays was definitely a good part.”

Song said he plans to visit his parents in Canada immediately after graduation and then explore before he begins college this fall.

“I’m going to tour a lot of places in London and then I’ll spend a lot of time in Italy as well, and just try to experience new cultures right before I enter college and enjoy my time,” he said.

Song said Duke was an obvious choice for college since his dad attended there, along with other reasons.

“Duke as a school is like the perfect school to me because it’s very successful in terms of both academics and athletics, and those are like the types of schools I really always dreamed of attending,” he said. “And then third, I’m a Merit Scholar at the school and so they decided to give me really good financial aid.”

Maxie Lehauli, 18, Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School

Maxie Lehauli is a senior at Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School. She started her high school career at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and was homeschooled her junior year, but transferred to YDHS for her senior year to catch up on credits.

“When I was at JDHS my sophomore year they told me I wasn’t able to graduate this year, the actual year I’m supposed to graduate,” she said. “And then I went over to YDHS and they, like, helped me with everything that I needed.”

Lehauli said the faculty at YDHS provided a more welcoming environment for students. For her, their support system was an important factor.

“They would have more one-on-one time with you, like, to actually help you,” she said.

Lehauli also participated in JDHS track and field as well as volleyball. She’s one of Southeast Alaska’s top shot put competitors this spring, finishing first among girls in the Capital City Invitational in April and the Ketchikan Invitational earlier this month. Before putting on her cap and gown for Sunday’s graduation, she’ll be among the athletes at the Region V Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday, hoping to make it to the state championships in Anchorage the following weekend.

She said the experience of attending one school and playing sports at another was different, but still exciting.

“They’re both really positive. I liked it. It was really great,” Lehauli said.

Growing up, her activities also spanned a broad range. She participated in Indigenous events during the Traditional Games in elementary and middle school, winning the Girls’ Sportsmanship Award while representing Floyd Dryden Middle School in 2019. The following year, she also served as a guest page for the Alaska State House at the Capitol while attending the school.

In her free time, Lehauli enjoys spending time with her family and working. Her favorite subject at YDHS was psychology, while her least favorite was geometry. She was also a student of the month honoree during her senior year.

YDHS’ graduation ceremonies are notoriously different from those at JDHS since only a few dozen students, rather than a few hundred, are getting their tassels. Each student at the alternative school gets individual on-stage recognition of their accomplishments by their faculty advisor before receiving their diploma. Lehauli said she’s proud to be the featured student speaker at the ceremony.

“It feels really great, actually,” she said. “It’s like an honor to be speaking at graduation for me, because (of) being the first one out of my family to speak at graduation.”

After graduating, she plans to either attend trade school for auto mechanics or welding, or go straight into the workforce.

“This is the end of our chapter in life of high school,” she said. “We’re going into the real world, we’re the new adults now.”

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356. Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306. Ellie Ruel can be contacted via editor@juneauempire.com.