Advertisement

PdC High School Class of 2016 val and sal named

Error message

  • Warning: array_merge(): Expected parameter 1 to be an array, bool given in _simpleads_render_ajax_template() (line 133 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/includes/simpleads.helper.inc).
  • Notice: Trying to get property 'settings' of non-object in _simpleads_adgroup_settings() (line 343 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/includes/simpleads.helper.inc).
  • Warning: array_merge(): Expected parameter 1 to be an array, bool given in _simpleads_render_ajax_template() (line 157 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/includes/simpleads.helper.inc).
  • Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in include() (line 24 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/templates/simpleads_ajax_call.tpl.php).

Jessica Gutknecht, valedictorian, and Autumn Kohler, salutatorian

Jessica Gutknecht has been named the valedictorian and Autumn Kohler the salutatorian of the Prairie du Chien High School Class of 2016.

Jessica Gutknecht is the daughter of Rick and Joy Gutknecht. She’s grown up in Prairie du Chien and has been an active part of the community. She is a member of St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church and president of the youth council there. Throughout high school, she has been a varsity athlete in gymnastics, golf, and soccer. She’s also participated in Key Club, Science Club, National Honor Society, and a musical production.

After the completion of her senior year, Jessica will have taken seven Advanced Placement classes including calculus AB, calculus BC, statistics, English language, English literature, U.S. history, and music theory. Additionally, she’s taken two Project Lead the Way (PLTW) classes: intro to engineering and design, and civil engineering and architecture.

Her seventh grade year, Jessica was put into accelerated math classes and, by eighth grade, she was taking courses at the high school. Since then, she has taken every math class offered at Prairie du Chien High School and is currently taking two courses at UW-Platteville. Last semester, she received an A in calculus and analytical geometry III and is now taking differential equations. From the variety of courses she has taken at Prairie High School, she has been endowed an AP Scholar with Honor Award, received the honor of sharing the title of NHS Top Junior and Top Senior with Autumn Kohler, and completed more than 13 college credits.

Aside from the honor classes she has taken and the success she found down those paths, the most influential class she has taken in high school is band. She believes band has taught her what she couldn’t learn by sitting in an ordinary classroom: respect, trustworthiness, a strong work ethic, dependency, friendship, healthy competitiveness and confidence.

In the fall, Jessica will apply all she’s learned in order to receive a degree in aerospace engineering. To pursue this career, she is not able to attend a college in Wisconsin and will be declining the state-given scholarship. As of right now, she is still deciding between California Polytechnic, CU-Boulder and UW-Seattle.  

Autumn Kohler is the daughter of Kirby and Melissa Kohler. Throughout her four years of high school, she has received the AP Scholar Award, been nominated Top Junior (now senior) alongside Jessica Gutknecht for National Honor Society, participated in math competitions, and maintained a high GPA despite medical complications causing her to be absent often.

She has been involved in Key Club, Science Club, National Honors Society, the National Society of High School Scholars, prom committee, Clay Crushers clay target shooting league, varsity golf team, varsity Hawkettes dance team, competition cheerleading, varsity wrestling cheerleading, and varsity basketball cheerleading. She has taken two PLTW courses: principles of biomedical science and medical interventions. She has also taken seven AP courses, including AP United States history, AP environmental science, AP psychology, AP language and composition, AP literature, AP Spanish, and AP government. In college, she  plans on receiving an English degree in order to pursue a future career in editing or publishing.

Autumn’s hobbies include dancing, reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends. She also loves traveling and learning about new people, places and cultures. She feels her AP government, psychology, and English/literature classes have impacted her greatly in the sense that they have opened her eyes to new ideas and information. While her English courses broadened her knowledge in grammar and diction, AP government created an immense interest in politics that she said she wasn’t aware of prior to the class.

Autumn is now considering a political science minor. She has been accepted to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, but is still waiting for decisions from several other colleges before selecting a university to attend. She believes a degree in English will create diverse opportunities for her in the future, such as professor, author, journalist, editor or publisher.

With her English degree, she’s excited about following her passion for the written word. She believes that words have the power to change people, and she hopes to utilize her career to help her community and those around her. In the future, she also hopes to attain her Ph.D. and write a book.

Rate this article: 
No votes yet