Senior Salute: Recognizing inspirational members of class of 2021

Resiliency.

Any member of the graduating class of 2021 likely has learned about that.

And many have used the past two years of their high school careers to show their resiliency in incredibly inspirational ways.

So we wanted to lift up some high school seniors who demonstrate a resiliency we all could learn from as they move on to their adult futures.

When we started asking for names, it became clear the hardest part would be determining who to feature.

We learned about students like Elena Lee from Roosevelt High School, who learned how to sew from her grandma so she could make masks for classmates and friends, and works at a math tutoring center helping other students catch up.

We learned about Mason Endsley, a Lincoln High School senior who shocked his family by landing a full-time job before graduating. His COVID experience included being part of Camp Judson during its outbreak, which meant he became the only person on the Lincoln drum line not quarantined for the homecoming show. An internship started this year at Real Property Management Express already led to a promotion as a property management associate, which will become his job after graduation.

And there are so many more. Meet some members of the class of 2021 who will leave you inspired and convinced the future is in good hands.

Jessica Kruse, O’Gorman High School

If you didn’t know anything else about Jessica Kruse, her high school record would impress on its own: She has taken advanced placement classes for the past several years, written for the school newspaper, played so many instruments it’s hard to keep track of and recently taken up powerlifting.

“My interests are kind of everywhere,” she said.

When you learn what else she has had to deal with in her 18 years, her success becomes even more admirable.

“I’ve been very school-oriented. My dad was the complete opposite and wanted me to do better than he did,” she said.

Kruse is a self-described “Daddy’s girl.” She calls her father, Stephen, her best friend.

He’s the reason she spent the past approximately eight years in Sioux Falls. Before that, it was a different story.

Stephen, a civil engineer, met Kruse’s mother while working in the Philippines. They moved to Washington state, where she was born, and from there, “we moved all over the place.” Jobs took them to Arizona, Colorado, Canada and back to Washington. Then, when Jessica was in fourth grade, her grandfather became sick in the Philippines, and her mother moved back to care for him.

“I haven’t seen my mom since fourth grade,” she said.

Lost paperwork meant she couldn’t return. Divorce followed, and Jessica moved to Sioux Falls, where her father had family, and lived with her paternal grandparents so she wouldn’t move along with her father’s work.

“Every Friday, he’d pick me up, take me to a buffet, and we’d drive around and talk, and he’d ask me to update him about my week, and he’d update me on his,” she said. “And he’d call me through the week to make sure I was doing OK and wasn’t drowning in schoolwork.”

Then, in her sophomore year, came devastating news: Her father had liver cancer. He was expected to live six months. It became twice that, before he died at age 62 in January 2020.

“It felt like he stayed because of me,” she said. “He always said, ‘I’ll go when I know you’re going to be OK.’ He held off as long as he could. And it was right before COVID hit, which was fortunate. They had to close off visitors from coming into hospice … and if we weren’t able to visit because of COVID, that would have been horrible.”

Then, as a high schooler living with her grandparents, Jessica became the one to help the family navigate the pandemic. She quit her job at Hy-Vee so she wouldn’t expose the household to more risk than necessary, she ran out and got whatever the family needed so her grandparents could stay home, and she skipped things like games and activities.

“It was hard because it’s senior year, and it’s the last time I get to do stuff, but family is more important,” she said.

She has learned to find the good amid the challenges, she said. Going to school virtually for the end of her junior year led her to form a close group of friends as they did homework together via FaceTime.

College was a relatively easy decision. She and her dad had toured several after her sophomore year and both preferred the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She plans to major in math and is back to working at Hy-Vee until school starts this fall.

She also has landed a big honor to help along the way. Kruse is South Dakota’s only Horatio Alger Association national scholar this year. The organization awarded her a $25,000 scholarship. A new laptop arrived last week, and she’ll take a weekly college prep class through the program this summer. She hopes to use an upcoming conference invite with the association to learn more about career opportunities.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think with COVID,” she said. “It’s been really hard, but I’m very grateful for it now. It made me a more independent person for sure. My family has no fear sending me away to college; they know I can take care of myself.”

Living through the 18 years she has made her a more sympathetic person, she said.

“How I like to live my life is loving and respecting other people,” she said. “That’s a big thing my dad raised me on. You never know what other people are going through, and no matter what — even if you don’t like a person — you have to reach out to make sure they’re doing OK and be the nicest person you can.”

–Jodi Schwan

Jennah Simphaly, New Tech High School

Jennah Simphaly is determined to walk across the stage at graduation.

It’s not the coursework or the grades that are the barrier. It’s the walking itself.

Simphaly is still recovering after a Feb. 11 car accident left her with two broken legs, a broken arm, internal bleeding and issues with her back, collarbone and head.

“I was unconscious for about a week and a half,” she said.

Simphaly had been riding with her friend on the west side of town when a drunken driver going 60 mph in a 35-mph zone hit the two teens head-on.

Simphaly got the worst of the injuries, though her friend also sustained broken bones.

She doesn’t remember what happened or any of that week and a half spent in the hospital before she regained consciousness, but she later learned that she and her friend were pulled from the car by a passerby after it started on fire.

The only reason the passerby was there in the first place was because she took a wrong turn.

“I’ve never really been the religious type, but after the accident, I do believe everything happens for a reason,” Simphaly said.

The accident changed her perspective on life.

She let go of past grudges and worked to repair friendships, and she has had to learn how to be more patient and, at times, less independent.

Before her senior year, Simphaly already had four years of work experience, including management, under her belt.

She would go to school during the day and then work at Burger King until 10:30 or 11 p.m.

“I’d come home, and I’d do my schoolwork, and then I’d probably be up until (midnight) or 1 a.m.,” she said.

But after the accident, she had to learn to accept help from others. She was in a wheelchair for awhile, and at first doctors told her she likely wouldn’t be walking by graduation.

Being the hard worker she is, Simphaly was determined to prove them wrong.

Now, with more than a week to spare before graduation, Simphaly is not only out of the wheelchair, but also she’s often walking without the assistance of even a walker.

“The first time I stood up, I walked 6 feet,” she said. “I don’t know, I was just very eager to get back to where I was.”

After graduation, Simphaly plans to attend Augustana University and major in anthropology and chemistry.

–Megan Raposa

Joshua Turner, Roosevelt High School

Kris Turner hugs her 18-year-old son Joshua Turner every day.

It’s how he greets her when she comes home from work, but it’s also another way for her to show gratitude that he’s there to greet her at all.

Joshua was diagnosed with cerebral palsy on his first birthday, and by the time he was 2 years old, doctors told Kris her son wouldn’t live past age 9.

Now, he’s preparing to graduate from Roosevelt High School with a 3.1 grade-point average.

“I was told there was a lot of things he would never do, and he’s proven so many people wrong,” Kris said.

Immediately after his initial diagnosis, Kris enrolled him in the Birth to Three program, horse therapy and adaptive swimming and got him leg braces.

“I was doing whatever I could to keep him going, keep his limbs going, being active, doing whatever needed to be done to make his life better,” she said.

Joshua went on to start kindergarten at JFK Elementary, but for a long time he was in and out of the hospital.

When he was 16, doctors realized he didn’t have cerebral palsy after all, but instead he had a rare mutated gene called GNAO1, which caused a seizure movement disorder. He now has a monitor in his chest, like a pacemaker, Kris said, that helps control his involuntary movements.

“For you and I to pick up a pencil, you just do it,” Kris said, explaining how the device works. “This tells him how to do everything. It’s connecting things for him that weren’t connected before.”

Joshua is nonverbal, but he communicates via sign language, yes or no questions, and he uses a talking device at school to help him communicate with other students.

He also has been able to have many traditional high school experiences in his time at Roosevelt. He even rented a tux, bought flowers and went to prom with his friend Heather, who has Down syndrome.

“I’ve always pushed him to try,” Kris said. “I don’t tell him he can’t do anything.”

After graduation, Joshua plans to join the Pathways program at LifeScape, where he can learn life skills like cooking, shopping, making a bed, showering and more.

His mom hopes his success in school can be an example for others.

“I want people to know,” she said, “don’t ever discredit your kid because you’ll be amazed at what they can do.

–Megan Raposa

Kylie Weier, Roosevelt High School

When she was only 2 years old, Kylie Weier was diagnosed with having an Arnold Chiari malformation.

It means her brain stem extends into the third vertebrae in her spine, her mother, Darci Miles, explained, and it blocks the opening that allows fluid in her brain to flow into her neck.

“She had her first brain surgery when she was 3,” Miles said.

Another surgery was needed when Weier was in sixth grade to help ease the pain from frequent headaches.

“It’s not curable,” Miles said. “It’s nothing they can fix. She just has to manage it.”

And manage it, she does. Weier has pushed through periods of daily headaches, two brain surgeries and different medications, but through it all she has been able to succeed in school to the point where she’s graduating a full year early.

“I just wanted to move on to bigger things,” Weier said about her push to graduate as a junior.

She took a summer school class and added extra classes to her schedule this year. She even has taken some dual-credit courses, meaning she’ll not only graduate early, but also already have some college credit.

Her goal is to become a nurse, a career inspired by her own medical history.

“All the nurses were so nice and so joyful, and I feel like that’s what I want to do and what I want to be around,” she said. “They would always make me happier.”

Meier is enrolled in Southeast Technical Institute in the fall, where she’ll study to become a licensed practical nurse and eventually a registered nurse.

Her mother has no doubts she’ll push through any hardships to accomplish that goal.

“The minute she was born, she was on fire,” Miles said. “When Kylie sets her mind to something, she just accomplishes it.”

–Megan Raposa

Carly Wheeler, Lincoln High School 

When Carly Wheeler started as a freshman at Lincoln High School, she came in quiet and focused.

Determined to be successful in academics, in extracurriculars and in giving back through service, her end goal was medical school. Her resolute determination was born out of challenges her family had faced the years prior.

When she was a sixth grader, Wheeler’s father left her family. He struggled with alcohol abuse, and the fallout from his addiction left the family falling from an upper-middle-class lifestyle to barely being able to afford groceries.

Wheeler was determined to prove to her two younger brothers that success isn’t dictated by the amount of money you have or your family situation.

“I have just been living by the idea that all of that doesn’t define me or my potential,” she said.

At Lincoln, she focused on advanced classes, like accelerated math and chemistry, and one day, her advanced English teacher suggested she try a journalism class.

“I thought he was crazy,” Wheeler said. “I could never interview anybody. I could never write.”

But she took the class anyway, and she became close enough with the teacher, Katie Kroeze, to join the Statesman staff.

“I guess I just kind of fell in love with it after that,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler was a natural, Kroeze said, and she quickly rose through the ranks to become editor in chief, where she became a thoughtful and poised leader.

“She takes pride in what she does, and so that pushes her to really push others,” Kroeze said. “She has a way of talking people through issues instead of just calling them out and getting upset.”

Meanwhile, Wheeler didn’t stop taking the math and science classes, but she has discovered that she has interests outside the world of STEM too. Next year, she’s taking her varied interests to Augustana University, where she plans to double-major in biochemistry and journalism.

Journalism helped her “blossom” and gain confidence. Now, she’s comfortable giving a speech, asking a question, doing an interview.

“I can really see my growth,” she said. “And I’m excited to look back on my high school career one day and just know that Lincoln kind of made me grow into my authentic self.”

–Megan Raposa

Bennett Yellow Bird III, Roosevelt High School

Bennett Yellow Bird III was the new kid at Roosevelt when he started as a freshman. He’d spent his elementary and middle school years in the Catholic school system, and he suddenly was surrounded by more than 2,000 kids in one building.

But it didn’t take him long to get adjusted.

He started joining every activity he could, including football, basketball, student council and Best Buddies — a program aimed at connecting students with their peers who have disabilities. He also served as a student ambassador, someone who welcomes the new kids like him and shows them the ropes.

Four years later, he was the first Native American in Roosevelt’s history to be crowned homecoming king.

“My culture plays a huge part in my life as well, and being homecoming king and being Native American, it meant a lot,” he said.

As the third kid in a family of seven, Yellow Bird also knows he has people looking up to him.

“Showing that it can be done … it meant the world to me,” he said.

Teacher and student council adviser Michele Jensen played a big role in getting Yellow Bird to Roosevelt. Her son played on some of the same sports teams, and she knew Yellow Bird would thrive at Roosevelt.

She was right about that, but she said the credit is really owed to Yellow Bird’s parents and siblings, who all motivate one another to achieve greatness.

Seeing his high school career come to an end is surreal, Yellow Bird said, especially with the pandemic shaking up his junior and senior years. But he’s ready for the next step.

He’s planning to attend the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with a major in exercise science.

As for what he’ll do for fun in the meantime?

“I don’t know, honestly,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve been in activities since I was 4.”

–Megan Raposa

Congratulations to all the members of the class of 2021!