The Class of 2018

Ceci Bergquist is president of the St. George’s School student body, a four-year captain of her high school basketball team, a member of the Ronald McDonald teen board, and she’s a cancer survivor. Bergquist attempted to balance school and treatment, but ultimately made the decision to take a year off from school to heal both physically and mentally.

Megan Rauvola was a month short of her ninth birthday when her parents moved from Southern California to Rathdrum. “I told them ‘You are ruining my life,’” Rauvola said, smiling. On a recent drive with her parents, Rauvola, a Lakeland High School senior, offered a belated apology. “The 8-year-old me was wrong because it was the best thing you could have done for me,” Rauvola told them.

Barry Martin credits Medical Lake Alternative High School with helping him turn a corner on his life.

Sometimes a name just fits. Elisha Coad knows how to code with the best of them. A senior at Classical Christian Academy in Post Falls, Coad already boasts a resume with more technology and leadership experience than many twice his age. He co-owns a business with his older brother, called CodeBros, which specializes in professional graphic and web design, as well as 3D modeling and animation.

Malik Cordell Cheek is considered nonverbal, but his larger than life personality has won him friends and admirers in school and in life.

After several successful internships, Project Search graduate Aries Barry has achieved the first of many goals by landing a paid job in the kitchen at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute.

Koa Hester knows all about jams – not the sweet kind that goes on toast, but rather those short matchups that are part of roller derby. Hester joined the Pixies, a junior league roller derby team in Spokane, when she was 10. She fell in love with the sport when she was 8 and watched her mother participate. “I wanted to be just like her,” said the 18-year-old daughter of Clara Hester, a seamstress, and Kaleb Hester, a truck driver. The family lives in Spirit Lake, Idaho, where she is about to graduate from Timberlake High School.

India Smith defines herself as someone who plans to change the world in one way or another. As a young African-American woman, Smith has faced adversity her entire life. However, with graduation from The Community School quickly approaching, Smith holds three college acceptance letters in her hands, something she had never planned for.

Elizabeth Potter, a senior at Cheney High School, spent ages 8 to 12 growing up in Thailand. After six years, Potter returned there during February and March this year to work for the nonprofit, Echo.