Graduation_2012

Moscow | Pullman | Colfax | Deary | Paradise Creek | Pullman ChristianGarfield-Palouse | Potlatch | Troy | Genesee | Kendrick | Logos | Colton

READY FOR THE WORLDGRADS ON THE PALOUSE SET TO GRAB LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL

A special publication of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Graduation 20122 | Friday, May 25, 2012 | MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS

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Graduation 2012

By Katie RoenigkDaily News staff writer

Jasmine Hanson’s most memora-ble moment of high school may also be the most memorable moment of her life: The Pullman High School senior said everything changed for her last year when she gave birth to her daughter, Audrey.

“Before I had her I was kind of a bad kid — definitely a rebel,” Hanson said. “But when I had her, it made me look at things from a new perspec-tive. What will benefit her best?”

Hanson plans to enter the military after graduation, and she said her parents will care for Audrey while she is away at first. Once she is settled in a new location, Hanson said she will bring Audrey home with her.

“I want to provide for her,” Hanson said.

She is proud that she was able to finish school while pregnant, then

with a baby in the house, but Hanson said the past few years have not been easy. For one thing, she hid her preg-nancy from her peers, who began to speculate about her condition when she started wearing baggy sweat-shirts to school.

“The rumors were definitely the hardest part, but I just learned to ignore it,” she said.

Then, she had to adapt to the stresses of having a newborn and going to school.

“It definitely makes it difficult to get homework done,” Hanson said.

“She was two months when I went back to (school).”

Hanson gave a “big thanks” to her parents, Shelly and Greg Marthe. They have been supportive through-

out her life, but Hanson said her mother offered to take care of baby

PULLMAN HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 5 p.m. June 2 at Beasley Performing Arts Coliseumn Graduates: 178n Valedictorian: Malte Lange, Dylan Moore, Katherine Shirazi, Mitchell Tang and Ledaman Zakarisonn Salutatorian: Wendoline Mercado-Rojano

Proud motherPullman High School senior thanks parents, faculty for helping her succeed after the birth of her child

Continued on Page 11

MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS | Friday, May 25, 2012 | 3

Jasmine Hanson

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What’s insidePullman, Jasmine Hanson .............................................2

Pullman Christian, Emma Hancock ..........................4

Moscow, Jane Walden ....................................................5

Logos, Jeremiah Leidenfrost .........................................6

Colfax, Kyle Johnson .......................................................7

Paradise Creek, Ashley Haskell ..................................8

Genesee, Miranda Carter ..............................................9

Troy, Randy Menter ........................................................10

Kendrick, Brooke Brown ..............................................11

Garfield-Palouse, Jesse Parkins ...............................12

Potlatch, Jake McMillan ...............................................13

Colton, Caity Kriehn.......................................................14

Deary, Matthew Balthaser ...........................................15

Graduation 2012

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When Emma Hancock leaves for college this fall, she will not have far to go from her parents’ home in Moscow, where she has lived for the past year.

“I’m attending the University of Idaho,” the Pullman Christian School senior said. “I’m planning to go into music education.”

During the summer, she said she will take advantage of her proximity to campus by mapping out the loca-tions of her classes and practicing her daily walks.

“I’m kind of nervous about not being able to remember which routes to take to class,” she said.

She applied to other colleges else-where, but Hancock said she wants to stay close to home so she can maintain a relationship with her

siblings: brother Christian, 15, and 8-year-old twin sisters Grace and Faith.

“I have a close connection with

PULLMAN CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 7 p.m. today at Living Faith Fellowshipn Graduates: 9n Valedictorian: Gailynn Benjaminn Salutatorian: Courtney Backes

Staying close to homePullman Christian School senior will

attend the University of Idaho next year

Emma Hancock


4 | Friday, May 25, 2012 | MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS

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Graduation 2012

By Holly BowenDaily News staff writer

Moscow High School senior Jane Walden is heading to Seattle for her college educa-tion, but she said she doesn’t plan to turn her back on the town she’s called home for the past 13 years.

“I like the community,” she said. “I’ve grown up with the same group of kids, more or less, since kindergarten. I love walking around and seeing people I know. I think when I get older, I’ll move back here and raise a fam-ily.”

Walden, a member of the National Honor Society, plans to major in physics at Seattle University starting this fall. She described her-self as “a bit of a nerd” who

loves science and math, and physics is particularly fasci-nating to her.

“It’s not like at the moment I have a complete knowledge of it,” she said. “I like the fact that it’s so interesting — it makes me want to learn more.”

She said starting out with physics will give her a foun-dation for any other science-related studies or career path she may pursue.

Walden also has an artis-tic side, having participated in Glee Club and a student Arts Committee at MHS.

She praised the Arts Committee, which plans the high school’s arts-related events, because it “kind of shoved me into the spot-light.”

“Arts Committee was the

best thing to happen to me in high school,” she said, adding that she used to be shy and tended to avoid talking to new people. “It helped me not worry what others thought, and it really helped me a lot with becoming who I am.”

Walden said her fresh-man year at Moscow Junior High School was a bit rough because she had just returned from a seven-month trip to

MOSCOW HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 7:30 p.m. June 8 in the Kibbie Domen Seniors: 185n Top scholars: Jordan Alves-Foss, Zachary Bickford, Jordan Eby, Raelynn Gosse, Josh Helbling, Daniel Leong, Allie McIntosh, Alina Pastor-Chermak, Erin Saladin and Hannah Young

MHS grad plans to return home — somedayMOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS | Friday, May 25, 2012 | 5

Jane Walden plans to study physics in Seattle


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Jeremiah Leidenfrost has lived in Moscow since he was in the sev-enth grade, but the Logos School senior said his second home is in Africa, where he was born.

His parents, Csaba and Lisa Leidenfrost, served as Christian missionaries in the Ivory Coast and in Mali. Leidenfrost said his father translated the Bible into regional languages while his mother home-

schooled him and his siblings.“We lived in a village where

people lived in mud huts,” he said. “My dad built us a house there that was a little more secluded.”

Leidenfrost said he enjoyed liv-ing in the hot, humid climate that was complemented by tropical rain-forests.

“My mom planted the land really beautifully,” he said. “We had fruit trees and a couple ponds. It was a really nice property.”

He said he experienced culture

shock when his family moved to Moscow, but he eventually came to enjoy his time at Logos. He partici-pated in track and field throughout his high school career and said he likes the competitive aspect of the sport.

He said one of the highlights of high school was a physics field trip where he and a couple other 18-year-old classmates went sky-diving near Seattle. He said he

LOGOS HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 3 p.m. Saturday in the UI Administration Building auditoriumn Seniors: 26n Valedictorian: Will Eisenbergn Salutatorian: Madeline Schlect

Logos graduate recalls childhood in Africa

Jeremiah Leidenfrost staying in Moscow to attend New Saint Andrews

Jeremiah LeidenfrostContinued on Page 12

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Graduation 2012 MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS | Friday, May 25, 2012 | 7

Colfax senior overcame rare foot disorder to help win state


Anyone who was present at this year’s Washington State 2B boys basketball championship game in Spokane would not believe that Colfax High School senior and team co-captain Kyle Johnson was unable to walk for months of his fresh-man year.

Johnson was born with lateral talus syndrome, a rare foot condition that required that he wear leg braces beginning in sev-enth grade. By the time he entered high school, Johnson needed surgery on both of his feet, and his doctor told him it would take six months to fully recover.

“I was in a wheelchair for two-and-a-half months in high school, then I spent four months learning to walk again,” he said. “The sur-gery had changed the whole structure of my feet.”

Despite his inability to

walk, run or jump, Johnson, who has played basketball his whole life, decided to join the high school team. He said he was determined to recuperate and contribute more than moral support to his teammates.

“My sophomore year peo-ple said, ‘Oh he can’t run,’ ” Johnson said. “I wanted to say, ‘I should be running.’ I’m competitive like that.”

At the time, he was 5-feet-8-inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. As he prepares for graduation next week-end, however, Johnson stands 5-foot-11-inches tall and weighs in at 170 pounds. And he says he’ll continue to get stronger and faster.

“Last year I still couldn’t jump and run like I could in eighth grade, but this year

I got my quickness back,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m gaining every day. I feel like I’m getting younger.”

He has not decided wheth-

er he will play for the bas-ketball team at Whitworth

Kyle Johnson couldn’t walk for months in high school, but went on to the

state basketball championship

Kyle Johnson


COLFAX HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 1 p.m. June 2 at Colfax High Schooln Graduates: 56n Valedictorian: Morgan Willsonn Salutatorian: Arik Laubach

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Paradise Creek Regional High School senior Ashley Haskell is pre-paring to expand her repertoire of art skills this fall in the graphic design program at Lewis-Clark State College.

“Since I was little, I used to draw with my grandma all the time, and I used to paint random things,” she said.

She said she began to learn her own style, which she described as “different,” as she took art classes in school over the years.

“I like kind of surreal things that portray messages,” she said.

In one of Haskell’s paintings, Little Red Riding Hood wears the pelt of a wolf on her head as she tucks a gun into her purse. Haskell said the piece represents triumph over fear, adding that the wolf can be anything that produces anxiety.

She said she enjoys mixed media art the most because it allows her to combine a variety of materials to get her message across.

“I like the fact that you’re not really limited,” she said. “The way different things contrast, it allows you to add meaning.”

Haskell, the daughter of Marla and Danny Haskell, said she hopes to return to PCRHS next year to paint a mural on one of the school walls.

She was born in Troy, but her

Art on the agendaParadise Creek Regional graduate heading to LCSC

PARADISE CREEK REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 7 p.m. June 6 at Moscow High Schooln Seniors: 9n Valedictorian/Salutatorian: None

Ashley HaskellContinued on Page 12

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Genesee School senior Miranda Carter said the small size of her class — 25 stu-dents — will make for a special graduation ceremony this weekend.

“Growing up with the same people from kindergarten and up is something a lot of people can’t say they did,” she said.

Carter, the daughter of Dan and Dana Carter, said she enjoys how close-knit the community is. She was born in Moscow, but her family moved a few miles south to the countryside between Genesee and Moscow when she was 2. She said she enjoys the privacy of her home, which is surrounded by farmland.

Her proximity to Moscow means she isn’t too far away from the amenities of a larger city.

“There’s always something to do if you drive,” she said.

Carter will be majoring in journalism at the University of Idaho beginning this fall. She created a magazine for her senior proj-ect, and she said she likes the idea of compil-ing photos, articles and other information into a complete package.

For her senior project, she took photos of her family and friends for mock advertise-ments and features. The magazine is divided into sections for people and health, theater, studio art, photography and fashion.

She said she isn’t exactly sure what she

would like to do with her eventual journal-ism education — just as long as it’s in the creative realm.

“I also plan to publish a novel,” she said. “I’ve been writing books since I was 10. I have these stapled-together stacks of paper.”

Carter said the UI wasn’t her first choice, but other schools she looked at were too expensive and didn’t really appeal to her. She said she hopes to study abroad in England during her junior year as a way to get away for a while.

“I really wanted to go somewhere else,” she said. “UI is a great school, but I’ve been here so long.”

At Genesee School, Carter has been involved in theater, choir, Idaho Drug-Free Youth, basketball and associated student body.

She said theater class has been her favor-ite.

“It’s a way to express yourself,” she said. “You’re learning something, but in a really interactive way.”

Holly Bowen can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by email to [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @DailyNewsHolly

Genesee graduate enjoys expressing creative side

Miranda Carter to study journalism at the University of Idaho

GENESEE HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 11 a.m. Saturday at Genesee Schooln Seniors: 25n Valedictorian: Garrett Jonesn Salutatorian: Katelyn Phillips

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Randy Menter of Troy High School is getting ready to hang up his basketball jersey and enter the game of business.

He’s got a head start as president of his school’s Business Professionals of America chapter, which gave him and other students the opportunity to learn about business man-agement and finance. The students traveled

to state competitions in Boise over the past four years.

“It’s just something different than what we usu-ally do,” he said. “It’s different than what’s offered in classes.”

Now, he is planning to attend the University of Idaho this fall to major in business and accounting. He said he likes the hands-on aspect of those sub-jects, and they’re broad enough at the undergradu-

ate level to give him a foundation if he chooses to continue his education.

“It’s something that challenges me, and I like to work with numbers,” he said about math.

As for the UI, “it’s something that’s close enough to home if you need to go back for a little bit.”

Menter, the son of John and Chris Menter, said he is keeping his options open when it comes to a post-college career.

In addition to being active in the BPA, Menter has participated in cross-country, track and field and the National Honor Society, and he has played basketball since he was in the fourth grade.

He said running could remain a hobby of his in college and beyond.

“It’s a really good way to stay active,” he said. “It’s something you can do for the rest of your life.”

Menter said it’s going to be a real change to move to Moscow after spending 18 years in Troy, a close-knit community where he knows all of his classmates.

“It’s just a small town — you know everybody,” he said. “Everybody’s there to help.”


TROY HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 11 a.m. Saturday at Troy High Schooln Seniors: 33n Valedictorian: Taylor Mikelle Johnsonn Salutatorian: Melissa Marie Mayo

Time to get down to businessTroy graduate Randy Menter enrolling at the University of Idaho


Randy Menter

them, so I don’t want to go away, especially as they grow up,” Hancock said. “I love my sisters and broth-er.”

It was their close bond that led to the Hancock kids’ enrollment at PCS despite their residency in Idaho. When they moved to Moscow,

there wasn’t enough room in the city’s Christian schools to accommodate all of the siblings, so they decided to take classes in Pullman.

Hancock said she’ll miss the teachers she has gotten to know at PCS, especially Jamie Gleason, who taught her Bible, math, history, chemistry, physics and gym classes.

“He teaches a little bit of everything,” she said.

She plans to stay in touch with her friends from high school, and she is excited to spend more time with them outside of class. Looking back, she said she enjoyed her time at PCS, particularly the fact that she was able to compete against other high schools in basketball.

“It’s a small school, but we can play sports in the Mountain Christian League,” she said.

Hancock is the daughter of Joe and Jamie Berg of Moscow.

Katie Roenigk can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 301, or by email to [email protected].

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Brooke Brown said she’ll miss the camaraderie of her classmates after they graduate from Kendrick High School later this month.

She said most of the 19 seniors have gone to school together since kindergarten, and they spend much of their free time camping and hang-ing out with each other. Some of that time includes playing pranks on students in other grades.

For example, when Brown and the other students in her class were juniors, they brought a water truck to school to spray members of the senior class, who were having a sleepover inside.

In another prank, the students partially filled cups with water and placed them on sidewalks, packed tightly together to obstruct pedes-trians.

“We try to do stuff that’s not considered vandalism,” Brown said. “With the other classes, we get in little ‘wars.’ ”

She said she won’t be too far from her friends while she stud-ies nursing and plays volleyball on scholarship at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake.

“It’s only two-and-a-half-to-three hours away,” she said. “It’ll be easy to come back whenever. It’ll be good to get away for a while.”

She said she has been interested

in volleyball since she was in kinder-garten, when she would accompany her mother, an assistant coach, to practice. She said she always looked up to the high school-aged players.

Brown, the daughter of Jane and Lynn Brown, has lived on a farm outside Kendrick all her life. She said her family owns cows and hors-es and does some farming.

“I like being out in the coun-try,” she said. “I don’t really like towns. It’s much quieter and pri-vate here.”

In addition to playing volleyball, basketball and softball during all four years of high school, Brown has participated in 4-H and was president of the local FFA chapter for her junior and senior years.

“I really loved everything FFA does, since I’m a farm kid,” she said.

Brown said she took a steer to the Latah County Fair last fall and won the bronze for quality and fit-ting and showing.


KENDRICK HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 4 p.m. Sunday at Kendrick High Schooln Seniors: 19n Valedictorians: Austin Hall and Darryl Kerbyn Salutatorian: Pepper Curry

‘Farm kid’ to play volleyball in Moses LakeBrooke Brown of Kendrick says she’ll miss friends

Brooke Brown

Audrey when Hanson went back to school.

She also expressed her gratitude to members of the PHS staff, who worked with Hanson to make sure she ful-filled her academic require-ments in time to receive her

diploma this semester.“I’m thankful for how helpful

and understanding the school faculty were,” Hanson said. “If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to graduate.”

She does not know where she will end up living, but Hanson said she will miss Pullman if she ends up moving away. The senior, who also participated

in Future Farmers of America activities in high school, said she has enjoyed her home on the Palouse.

“It’s a friendly, homey town,” Hanson said. “Everyone is will-ing to help their neighbors.”


Moscow-Pullman Daily News online

HansonContinued from Page 3

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Graduation 2012


When Palouse High School senior Jesse Parkins saw a picture of a lineman hanging from a power pole, he knew what he wanted to do for a living.

“It’s the second deadliest job after deep sea fishing,” Parkins said of his future career as a lineman. “I always like living on the edge, push-ing the limits, getting that adrenaline rush.”

When he graduates this spring, Parkins will move to Spokane for four months to attend line construction school through Spokane Community College and Avista Utilities. After that, he hopes to find work in the field.

“I’ll pretty much go where I can find a job,” Parkins said. “I’d like to go some-where warm, but I like it here, too.”

He has lived in Palouse for five years, and Parkins said he has spent his time enjoy-

ing the outdoors with local friends. They hunt coyotes, go out shooting and mud-ding, and take turns jump-ing into the Palouse River in the summer. Parkins also played football and base-ball in high school, and he became involved in agricul-tural mechanics his junior year. By that point, he says, he had made a big change in his attitude toward school.

“I used to be a trouble-maker,” Parkins said. “But one day I decided this wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I started to do better. I real-ized life takes hard work.”

He anticipates that his training in Spokane will be a challenge as well. After

a math test and interview, Parkins was one of 32 train-ees selected for the training from a pool of 150 appli-cants. He said his upcoming lessons will involve a lot of physical activity.

“They said the first week is like boot camp,” Parkins said. “For the first few days you climb 30-foot poles, (but) by the end of the week you’re climbing a big, steel 90-footer.”

He doesn’t have much experience climbing, but Parkins said it seems like the lineman job will be fun. The career also should provide him with a livable income.

“I knew a lineman, and I saw how he was able to support his family,” Parkins said. “And if you love your job, you never work a day in your life.”

Parkins is the son of Paula Parkins and Dennis Fealy.


GARFIELD-PALOUSE HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 1 p.m. June 2 at Palouse High Schooln Graduates: 21n Valedictorian: Heidi Jamisonn Salutatorian: Missy Johnson

Parkins seeks adventure as linemanPalouse High School senior will head to Spokane for training


Jesse Parkins

Switzerland, where her parents, Tina Hilding and Von Walden, were on sabbatical from their university jobs.

“I was thrown into an all-French-speaking school with kids from different countries,” she said of that experience. “That was definitely character-building.”

She said she felt a bit like an outsider when she returned to Moscow, but that feeling went away when she moved up to MHS.

Walden also played ten-nis her sophomore and senior years, taking a break her junior year, and went on the annual Turtle Trip with the school’s Environmental Club this year. Students in the club traveled to Mexico to help newly hatched sea turtles safely make it to the ocean in the middle of the night.

“It was incredible in many ways,” she said about the trip. “It was different waking up at 3 in the morning and then working a three-hour shift.”

Walden, who was born in Seattle and lived in Madison, Wis., before moving to Moscow when she was just about to enter kindergarten, described MHS as “such a wonderful place.”

“The people are very nice, and there’s a lot to be involved in, which I’ve taken advantage of,” she said.

MHS Principal Bob Celebrezze said Walden has made the school a better place with her positive influence on other students.

“She is actively engaged, bright, articulate and has immense positive energy,” Celebrezze said.


enjoys learning about physics because it explains how things work.

“It was amazing,” he said of the skydiv-ing experience. “I loved it. We freefell for about a minute and a half.”

Leidenfrost said he likes the open spaces and wheat fields of the Moscow area and would choose that over big-city living. He’ll have at least four more years to take advan-tage of that, as he plans to attend New Saint Andrews College “because its liberal arts curriculum gives me the grounds to go off

and for the rest of my life be a Christian,” he said.

In his spare time, Leidenfrost enjoys carving wood, and he builds cabinets for Master’s Touch Woodworking during the summer. He said he started carving when he was in the seventh grade.

“I just like carving because it seems the shapes are in the wood, and I’m getting them out of it,” he said. “It’s more construc-tive than computer games.”


family moved to Moscow when she was very young. She said she enjoys the college town atmosphere of Moscow because it “makes it easier to be young here.”

“I like the diversity of people, and I like that everybody knows each other,” she said. “But I kind of don’t like it at the same time.”

She said she appreciates how her teach-ers know their students on a more personal level than at larger high schools. At PCRHS,

“you’re not just another student,” she said.Haskell said she will miss her teachers

and a majority of her classmates when she starts school in Lewiston and potentially transfers to another school in Oregon at a later date.

“I love beaches, and Oregon’s just a really beautiful place in general,” she said. “It’s still close enough to home, but far enough away.”


LeidenfrostContinued from Page 6

HaskellContinued from Page 8

WaldenContinued from Page 5



Jake McMillan enjoys the contrast of his quiet Princeton home with Potlatch High School, where he said there is never a dull moment.

“It’s been great going to Potlatch High School, getting to know my teachers and friends and going to school every day with people who make me laugh,” the outgoing senior said.

McMillan, the son of Jim and Tanya McMillan, plans to study mechani-cal engineering at the University of Idaho starting this fall. He said his favorite subject is math, and he loves working with his hands and getting them dirty.

He said his family moved from Coeur d’Alene to Princeton when he was a baby so his father could gain experience as a machinist at Bennett Lumber Products. Seeing his father’s work inspired him to pursue engi-neering so he can create better tools for others in the field.

“I kind of want to be that engineer that makes it practical and a little easier for machinists,” he said.

He said in addition to the UI’s proximity to Potlatch, he’s heard good things about the institution’s engineering program.

Campus life will be a change for McMillan, who currently lives in the countryside about a 10-minute drive

from school.“I like how it’s peaceful, and you

can wake up and see a deer out in your front yard and hear birds sing-ing,” he said.

He also said he likes the size of PHS and how it’s easy to get to know classmates and teachers.

McMillan is a familiar face to those affiliated with the school, as he has played football and basketball and participated in track and field for all four years of school. He said the latter is his favorite of the three sports.

“I love the intensity and every-thing (of basketball and football), but you get to track, and it’s more relaxed,” he said. “There are more opportunities to socialize.”

He said he also enjoys the indi-vidual rather than team aspect of the competition. If you win, that accom-plishment is yours.

“When you lose, there’s no one else to blame but yourself,” he said.

McMillan placed fifth in the triple jump and seventh in 300-meter hur-dles at the recent state high school track competition.

In addition to athletics, he has par-ticipated in the National Honor Society, Idaho Drug-Free Youth and the Latah County Youth Advocacy Council.


POTLATCH HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 10 a.m. June 9 at Potlatch High Schooln Seniors: 28n Valedictorian: Isaac Curtisn Salutatorian: Evan Lovel

Potlatch graduate aims to become engineer

Jake McMillan enjoys country life but is headed to Moscow

Jake McMillan

University in Spokane, where he plans to go to school next year.

Johnson, the son of Bryan and Debra Johnson of Colfax, said he is look-ing forward to entering college because none of his classmates will know him as the “gimpy” kid. But he said he will miss his friends and neighbors in Colfax.

“I’ve known them my whole life,” Johnson said. “This is where I

grew up.”He recalled this

year’s state champion-ship competition, dur-ing which he felt the support of community members who drove to Spokane to watch.

“We’re not just the best team in the state, we have the best fans,” Johnson said. “I give credit to them. ... It was

like a win for Colfax, not just those 12 guys in the locker room.”

Johnson’s most mem-orable moment of high school came directly after the game, when he and his teammates cel-ebrated their success together.

“I just remember a friend yelling at me, ‘You won state; all that work paid off,’” Johnson said. “It was crazy. I feel so lucky. Everyone on this

team truly loved each other. I wanted to win for my friends.”

He said he feels lucky when it comes to his later-al talus syndrome as well.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to play at the level I’m at,” Johnson said. “I learned that hard work pays off. Never say you can’t do it.”


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Colton High School senior Caity Kriehn is looking forward to the new experiences that will come when she enters col-lege at Boise State University next fall.

“It’s the independence; doing what I want to do,” Kriehn said, adding that the coming change is “a little” scary, too.

“But I was born in Boise,” she said. “I’m excited.”

Kriehn moved to Colton in 2004 when she was in elemen-tary school, and she said she likes the small Palouse town.

“It’s easy to get around, and it’s safe,” Kriehn said, describ-ing days spent taking walks and traveling the county with friends.

She says she’ll miss the familiarity of Colton.

“I’ll miss my teachers defi-

nitely,” Kriehn said, mentioning band director Tony Bonuccelli specifically. “I’ve taken band from him since I’ve been here.”

In addition to band, Kriehn has been involved in basketball, volleyball, softball and cheer-leading during her high school career, and she said she “loved” Spanish and English classes. She plans to study psychology at BSU, with a goal to become a clinical psychologist. During her final year in high school, Kriehn became a mentor for some of her younger classmates, and she said that helped her realize she had a passion for psychology.

“It just interests me a lot,” Kriehn said. “I want to help people.”

She also wants to take music classes, either joining a choir to picking up the piano in Boise.

“I grew up around music,” said Kriehn, who once sang the national anthem before an event

at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. “I think my whole family’s pret-ty musical.”

Kriehn’s mom Danette plays the guitar and sings, and her dad Richard is an instructor at the School of Music at Washington State University in Pullman. Kriehn said she will be sad to leave her parents’ home, but she said she will do whatever feels right to her.

She may want to explore a larger city in the future.

“We’ll see what fits best,” she said.


Colton grad excited for independenceCaity Kriehn plans to study psychology at BSU COLTON HIGH SCHOOL

n Graduation: 11 a.m. June 2 in the Colton High School gymnasiumn Graduates: 15n Valedictorians: Haley Moser and Erin Webern Salutatorian: Jake Riedner

Caity Kriehn

Graduation 2012


Matthew Balthaser went from attending middle school in the big city of Houston to going to high school in Deary, where his senior class is 17 students strong.

A native of Fort Hood, Texas, Balthaser and his family moved to Latah County four years ago to be closer to family members who live in the area.

He said living in each city has had its advantages and disadvan-tages.

“In small towns, you really kind of know everybody,” he said. “It’s not like you meet a new per-son every day.”

Balthaser, the son of Karen and Tony Balthaser, added that he misses having more things to do for fun with his friends, as in Texas.

But he said he appreciates the

small-town atmosphere at Deary High School.

“I like being able to have good friends and having all my classes together with them,” he said.

Balthaser plans to study sports medicine at the University of Idaho beginning this fall, both because of the school’s proxim-ity and the quality of its sports medicine program, he said. His favorite subject in high school has been anatomy and physiol-ogy.

He said he isn’t sure what he’d like to do for a career — something using his degree, for

sure — but he is considering an eventual move back to Texas.

“I miss my family I have down there,” he said.

At Deary High School, Balthaser has been involved in Idaho Drug-Free Youth, basket-ball, cross-country and track and field. His track and field spe-cialty is the pole vault, in which he tied for fifth at a recent state competition.

He said pole vaulting is an adrenaline rush that requires dis-cipline while running and main-taining upper body strength.

“I like the mental part of it — having to go over instead of out,” he said, describing the way the pole launches him into the air.


DEARY HIGH SCHOOLn Graduation: 11 a.m. Saturday at Deary High Schooln Seniors: 17n Valedictorian: Trevor Casen Salutatorian: William Wadley

From Houston to Deary Grad looks to UI to vault him to new heights

MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS | Friday, May 25, 2012 | 15

Matthew Balthaser

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