Check out this YouTube video of four 2007 graduates

Joni Knapper

I graduated from GLHS in 1976, the big bi-centennial year. We were the Class of ’76 and celebrated with patriotic colors and themes. I was active in cheerleading, student senate, and French Club. I have very fond memories of being a student at Gull Lake. My husband Tim (’73) also graduated from Gull Lake, although we didn’t start dating until college.
It has been a pleasure to watch our three children Stephanie (06), Elizabeth (08) and Sara (12) progress through our alma mater.

Now, it is rewarding to be employed by Gull Lake as their School Nurse. It is my unique privilege to assist students here with their health concerns and hopefully help put a little extra focus on health and wellness into the school environment. Gull Lake Schools has been a wonderful place in which to grow up and now raise a family.
 
Joni Knapper RN, BSN School Nurse
GLHS 1976
 

Kyle Gooch

As you may know, I have a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan (2005) and am currently at Georgetown University Law Center (J.D. expected 2009). I’m in my second year at Georgetown Law. My dream is to make the world a better place by finding ways for corporations to pay less in income tax. The Law Center is located Washington, DC, which is a great place to live and work. I am just a few minutes away from the Capitol, the White House and dozens of other landmarks and museums.

The study of law is both difficult and intellectually stimulating. One of the most important skills I have learned is multitasking. For example, most of the students in my class are able to check their e-mail, browse Facebook, chat on the instant messenger, and still follow the class discussion well enough to be prepared in case they are called on. Most professors use the Socratic method, which in its pure form involves “cold calling” where a random student is asked a series of questions by the professor. Although the system can be frightening at first, everybody gets used to it after a few months, and it helps keep everybody on their toes and facilitates some interesting class discussions.

For example, as I am writing this, our tax class is discussing how certain gifts are treated in the computation of gross income. Come to think of it, that is not interesting at all. Regardless, going to law school in DC is a great experience.

Here's a recent picture of myself and my girlfriend, Jessica Paciorek, a 1st year medical student at Georgetown. Also, I am happy to answer any questions for Gull Lake students or grads who are considering either living in DC or attending Georgetown Law.  Good luck with the website! 

Cheers,
Kyle Gooch

Ryan Anthony

Life has been quite different after leaving Gull Lake High School. For the last five years I have been at Ferris State University. This was an amazing growing period for me to learn more about myself. I was on my own and making my own decisions. Life at Ferris was focused around class, friends, driving home, and getting use to being accountable. Being accountable for all for the decisions that I made was one of the biggest learning curves in college.

The most important thing I gained from being in college is my relationship with God. It was now up to me to go to Church and to keep following the faith that my parents had been teaching me from an infant. God blessed me with a group of students known as the Newman Center for Catholic Students at Ferris State University. After meeting people my own age and seeing the fire for their own personal relationships with God, it challenged me to do the same.

After being with the Newman Center for two years and graduating from Ferris in May of 2007, I decided to enter the seminary. I am now currently in Columbus, OH at the Pontifical College of Josephinum studying to become a Catholic priest. My life after Gull Lake High School has led to places that I never dreamed after graduating in 2002. As long as we follow our hearts and acknowledge that there is someone higher guiding us to do what is right, we will find peace in our lives.

Of course there are a few aspects of Gull Lake High School that will always be missed: the football and soccer games, spending time with friends, driving to school with my first car, surviving one of the biggest senior pranks in history, and many more. High school was an important time in my life and I am very thankful to have spent it at Gull Lake with all of the teachers, coaches, administrators, parents, and friends.
 
Thank you to all!
Ryan Anthony
Class of 2002

Megan Bergland

I graduated in 2006 from Gull Lake High School.  Gull Lake will always be the place I call home because that is where my heart is due to family, friends and the community.  It warms my heart when I think about all of the memories we created there.  I am presently completing my sophomore year at Michigan State University where I am studying to become an elementary school teacher, with a minor in Spanish and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL).  I am really looking forward to next year when I actually get to be in the classroom setting.  While at Michigan State, I have had the opportunity to compete on the MSU gymnastics team.  This has been wonderful because I truly love the sport and enjoy being part of a smaller “community” within such a large school.  I have had such great support from the Gull Lake community at both home and away meets.  Thank you so much!  You remind me how blessed I am to have been a part of Gull Lake.  I love coming back home to visit--- everyone goes out of their way to welcome me home and inquire about my life after high school.  Thank you!

Megan Bergland
Class of 2006

Laurie Luedecking-Klok

I am a 1989 graduate of GLHS and a 1995 graduate of WMU. I am currently teaching 5th grade at Ryan Intermediate. It is amazing how many alumni I see, and how many of their children I am now teaching.
 
After graduating from Western I married Brian (Parchment '89).  We have two children, Jacob and Alaina. We enjoy the fact that we live in the area and are able to attend school events and see old friends.
 
Life at Gull Lake is much the same as it was when I was in school.  The parent support of our students is incredible. I enjoyed being a student at Gull Lake and am thrilled with the opportunity to continue being a "Gull Laker."
 
Laurie Luedecking-Klok
Class of 1989


Monica Hamlett 

After graduating in 2004, my life has been a real adventure. I began at Michigan State University the same fall and chose finance as my major fairly early. Immediately following my freshman year I studied abroad in Querétaro, México. MSU prides itself in the study abroad program, and you cannot go to school in East Lansing and get far without hearing of countless opportunities to study outside the US. So I gave it a try; I lived with an incredible Mexican family and did an intensive six credit Spanish study over a nine week period. My Spanish capabilities when I arrived were somewhat elementary, but upon departure I had improved immensely.

I spent the following two years living off campus with friends both from high school and those I had met from classes and the dorms as well. My work load became progressively harder, as one would expect, over the semesters, and I was forced to learn to study efficiently, have good time management, and weigh priorities. I am not sure if I have faced harder obstacles than living with a group of persuasive girls who never seem to have to study at the same time I do!

Spring semester 2007 of my junior year, I reserved to study abroad a second time, and I could not be more fulfilled with my experience. I chose Quito, Ecuador. I studied Spanish grammar, Spanish literature, and Management. But beyond school, I obliquely studied cultures; of my Ecuadorian family, of the homeless people on the street, of the indigenous and so much more. I studied language in a macro sense, I learned geology majors while I hiked some of the ten volcanoes surrounding Quito, I learned anthropology as I stayed with the Huarani tribe on the weekend, but most rewarding was realizing I was not even aware of a tenth of what I was capable of until I could look back in hindsight and feel that it should never have been scary to begin with.

After my semester came to a close I spent the following six weeks with my best friend from the trip traveling through Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Columbia, and finally arrived back to the US after six months in July. I now live with a few girls off campus once again, and I am working hard to finish another demanding semester well, and I plan to graduate this May of 2008 with a BA in finance and a specialization in international studies. I have begun applying for jobs, but I would be lying if I did not admit I am fighting procrastination due to my fear of no longer being a student. I would ideally like to work abroad for a few years, either with finance, marketing or with language education.

It is hard to believe I have already been away from Gull Lake High School almost as long as I studied there. I have come to realize since I graduated, how lucky I was to have been raised in such an incredible place, to have been, and still be, a part of so many warm families, encouraged by a number of supportive and hopeful coaches, and to have been taught by such amazing educators.

Monica Hamlett 
Class of 2004

Kim Sincler Wisser

The Gull Lake Community has been a wonderful place to reside and work. I have lived in the area for many years and have watched the community grow and develop. I myself attended Gull Lake Schools and now my children are also attending. The school system has changed dramatically over the past two years and has seen several new additions with the new high school, renovations, and technology upgrades.

Gull Lake has become very competitive academically and athletically. As a fourth grade teacher in the school system, I am impressed with the academics that are offered and the potential that we have with all the new technology. It is truly a wonderful community to live and work in.
 
Kim Sincler Wisser
Class of 1988