Adam Herringa - Class of 1994

WELCOME TO BENZIE COUNTY CENTRAL SCHOOLS FEATURED FRIDAY ALUMNI. Today, we would like to recognize class of 1994 Alumni, Adam Herringa.

Adam grew up in the village of Lake Ann and spent countless hours roaming the outdoors around his home and many summers as a teenager hauling canoes at Riverside Canoe Livery. As a student at Benzie Central Adam, participated in numerous activities such as Cross Country, Track and Field, Student Council, National Honor Society, Theater, Band and one ill-advised year of Freshman Football. Following his graduation in 1994, Adam attended James Madison College at Michigan State University where, having always been interested in government, he studied political theory and became active in student government, led a student ambassador program, was a member of the MSU Athletic Council alongside professors and coaches, and received the Outstanding Senior Award. While at MSU, Adam met his future wife, Rebecca Clore.

Not ready to give up on formal education, Adam pursued a Master’s Degree in Public Administration at American University in Washington, DC. He and his future wife moved to Washington, DC, in 1998 and found a place to live right on Capitol Hill.

Following graduation, Adam was selected to be part of the first ever “Capital City Fellows” program which is a program developed by the City of Washington, DC, to expose young professionals to a variety of disciplines involved in operating a City as large and complex as the nation’s capital. During the fellowship, Adam worked for the Office of the City Administrator, Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Department of Transportation and, eventually, accepted a job offer from the Department of Public Works to serve as the department’s analyst.

Living and working in Washington, DC, was a tremendous experience but as time went on, both Adam and his wife began hearing the call to move back to Michigan. In 2004, Rebecca moved back to Michigan and Adam, despite not having a job, shortly followed. Fortunately, unemployment did not last long and Adam was hired as the Assistant to the City Manager for the City of Portage, MI. Adam served in this role for a short time before being promoted to Deputy City Clerk and then to City Clerk, the position he currently holds. Although technically the City Clerk, Adam fills a variety of roles for the City of Portage such as serving as a mentor to youth in the community, leading customer service enhancement efforts, assisting in employee wellness programs and staffing the emergency operations center.

While he enjoys his profession, Adam values balancing family, fun, service and work. A belief that life should not be lived nor valued based on job alone, Adam volunteers in his community and is currently the Chairperson of the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force, has been active in his church and, most recently, became a certified Master Gardener and volunteers at a local community garden. Health and wellness is also important, at least that’s what he tells himself when the alarm goes off way too early in the morning and he heads out to Crossfit AZO! Time for himself matters as well. Going on an annual guys-only backpacking adventure, playing rec league softball or simply having lunch with friends has helped Adam to recharge and maintain the balance he seeks.

Most important to Adam, is being a husband and father. Teaching, mentoring, guiding and caring for his two daughters, Madeline (age 11) and Lillian (age 8) has brought Adam much joy and, yes, the best kind of challenges! Whether coaching girls’ softball, taking the family to visit his mom in Lake Ann, playing with princesses, preparing a meal, looking at the stars or going on a hike, he strives to enjoy all of these moments with his wife and daughters.

Adam believes that Benzie Central is truly a special place and community. The fabric of the community is strong, teachers are passionate about what they do, and no matter how far you may wander you are always welcome back.

Adam, we could not be more #OneBENZIE proud. Thank you for sharing your journey thus far and continued success and happiness for you and your family. You guessed it, you know how Mrs. Crossman feels, like, love and share!

 

 

Michael Bair - Class of 1992

WELCOME TO BENZIE COUNTY CENTRAL SCHOOLS FEATURED FRIDAY ALUMNI. Today we would like to recognize, Class of 1992 alumni, Michael Bair.
Michael lived in Benzie County his entire childhood, attending Crystal Lake Elementary and then Benzie High School as part of the class of ’92. He was lucky enough to have a friend recruit him for Saturday football in 5th grade; he had teachers who pushed him ahead in math; and he had parents who thought his love of Legos would mean he’d like engineering. They were right! BCHS offered so much – Mr. John Gehring’s biology, especially those weekend trainings they did with recombinant DNA technology, were unheard of at the time in high schools, and Mr. Will Lynch’s Calculus and Physics, well, Michael feels he really couldn’t have been better trained for those AP tests and jumping off to college. He states, “I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to my teachers (not to mention the administrators). How did they put up with us? I remember during the ‘great days in physics’ competitions, my team’s goal was to either win or cause as much chaos as possible – or, if possible, do both. So many great memories – friends, sports, student council, NHS, Key Club.”
By the time Michael left Benzie, he felt like he had been taught to think for myself and to speak up. When he interviewed for NAVY ROTC, after a group interview with 5 other candidates, the recruiter pulled him aside and said the entire interview had been about assessing leadership. They gave him a scholarship, and he received one from the Air Force as well, but in the end he didn’t take either thinking (hoping?) that maybe he could pay for college on my own.
He went to the University of Michigan for Electrical Engineering. When he left Benzie, he had no idea if he was a liberal or conservative or really what any of that meant. During orientation he remembers being in an exercise with other students when they were asked questions such as “if you went to a party where you didn’t know anyone and everyone there was a different color/race, would you be ‘comfortable’ or ‘uncomfortable’, and vote by where you stand in the room”. And there he was, the only person who was close to the ‘uncomfortable’ wall when every other student was crammed as close to the comfortable wall as they could get, and the leaders were looking at him like he was crazy. They asked him why he would be uncomfortable and he looked at all those other students and said “you go to a party where you know nobody at all and you are perfectly comfortable?” It was an early example of splitting from the group and questioning consensus that has since served him well in his life and career.
Those first college calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology classes were hard, and yet Michael remembers thinking that he had been pretty well prepared for it. And all those study sessions he had in high school made the transition to group projects in engineering much easier than it could have been. There were times when he didn’t think he’d make it, like when he had to take a second job during his sophomore year because he simply didn’t have the money to eat (so he worked at a campus restaurant… problem solved!). Then there were times, like taking his first computer engineering class, when a bell went off in his head and he realized ‘this is what I was meant to do’. That’s a great feeling.
In his 3rd year he was interviewing for an internship with Nortel in Raleigh, NC, with about 100 other students vying for 30-40 jobs. He remembers getting so tired near the end of the day that his outspokenness showed through again. Talking to an interviewer that he particularly liked, he pointed around to the other students interviewing elsewhere around the room and said “look, I don’t know most of what you are talking about, but the truth is, neither do the rest of these guys either regardless of how they try to impress you. I guarantee you though I can learn faster than they can”. Michael got that job and spent 8 months down there working on speech-activated dialing. The job was a blast, North Carolina was a blast. Good times.
Later in college he interned with Motorola in Phoenix, AZ. Again, the city was awesome, the job was fun, but mainly he learned something new about himself: He loved the outdoors –hiking in the desert, mountain climbing, etc. Funny that he had to go 2000 miles away to learn that!
Michael graduated Summa Cum Laude in Electrical Engineering, and was all set to go get a master’s degree when he made a completely random and life changing decision. He had interviewed with a number of companies – tech was hiring like crazy then – so he got to fly all over the country to visit them. He wasn’t really interested in taking an immediate job, but he did want to find out about them and see how he could do. But one of them stuck in his head – an interview with a team in Oregon that worked for Intel. They were building CPUs, and in fact were the team that had just put out the ‘Pentium Pro’, the big microprocessor on the market back then. There was something about the team, and something about the setting of Portland – big city sitting right by the mountains, thick with forests, and near the ocean, that had him hooked. Michael decided to drop getting the master’s degree and dive in to work. He didn’t realize it until later, but his start time couldn’t have been more perfect – He got in on the early days of a big new project and was able to make a name for himself early on. The project resulted in the Pentium 4.
He also spent those first few years hiking and climbing mountains in the Northwest, Alaska, Patagonia, and New Zealand. He got to see a lot of good territory, but as much as he loved it, he had to ease back on the heavy climbing due to consistently getting bad elevation sickness. The stuff he saw though… geez. A storm coming off Denali and pummeling them in their camp on Muldrow Glacier in Alaska. Standing on the edge of the southern ice cap in Patagonia as the wind picked up stones off the nearby ground and hurled them at them. Helping a couple hikers who got hurt in Argentina hike out of the wilderness after a bad storm, and almost losing them in a river crossing that went bad. Diving into a glacial lake. Those things stick with him!
Michael met Sue briefly at U of M and then they re-met in Oregon. Their first date was a friend’s party, their second date was a week-long hiking trip in Glacier MT with a bunch of friends. They got married in ’99 back in Ann Arbor. They bought a fixer-upper on 6 acres out in the foothills of Oregon’s coastal mountains and spent years and years rebuilding it. Come to think of it, he says….we still are! They have 4 kids now: Sabina (13), Max (10), Nate (8), and Alistair (5). Michael love teaching them – Sue and Michael joke that sometimes she’s the bad cop and he’s the mean cop, and sometimes their roles reverse… but there is never a ‘good’ cop!
He’s done a bit of volunteering in the community including a 15-year stint helping young children to read as part of Oregon’s SMART program. Sue helps run the soccer program in their town and he has coached youth soccer and baseball, which is pretty funny since he says he knew exactly zero about either. At work, alongside his day job of developing microprocessors, he teaches leadership classes and mentor engineers around the globe. Along with all of that, he still gets to play ice hockey weekly, a passion of his for years and years. Michael says, “I have a lot to be thankful for.”
Michel looks back fondly at his time in high school. A piece of advice Michael would like to share, is this..”Most of the important decisions that will have the biggest effect on your life are made while you are ages 13-17 – you make a lot of choices about your priorities, where you are going to put effort, what type of friends you want to have, and how you are going to conduct your life. Do whatever you can to keep as many doors open as possible!”
Michael extends his heartfelt thanks to the BC schools staff, then and now!

Wow, wow, wow Michael….we are in fact #OneBENZIE proud. Thank you for sharing your amazing journey thus. Best wishes to you and your family, always. Yep, you guessed it. Mrs. Crossman says, like, love and share this!

 

 

Amy Gehring Ph.D. - Class of 1990

WELCOME TO BENZIE COUNTY CENTRAL SCHOOLS FEATURED FRIDAY ALUMNI. Today we would like to recognize Amy Gehring Ph.D., Benzie Central graduate class of 1990.

Amy particularly enjoyed her Science and English classes. Her father was the biology teacher at Benzie Central High School, so Science was always a part of her life growing up. Mr. and Mrs. Lynch also had a big impact on her scientific interests, including her chemistry class. Outside of academics, Amy participated in a variety of activities such as choir, National Honor Society, Key Club, and student council. She was also a statistician for the football team. During her senior year, Amy was the student council treasurer, which meant she was in charge of the stocking the school store with boxes and boxes of candy. I’m guessing you are all too healthy for that kind of thing anymore! Some of her fondest memories of high school were the Close Up trip to Washington DC and her senior class trip to Florida and the Bahamas.

After high school, Amy attended Williams College, a liberal arts college of about 2000 students in western Massachusetts. She became a Chemistry major because she liked both the subject matter and working in the lab as well as the collaborative environment of the department with lots of opportunities for close interactions with professors.

After graduating from Williams in 1994, Amy began a graduate program in biochemistry at Harvard University. After growing up in Beulah and attending college in a small town, it was exciting for her to be living and working in the Boston area. Amy studied enzymes from bacteria that can make interesting molecules, such as antibiotics. After earning her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1998, Amy did postdoctoral research in a different lab at Harvard where she began working with Streptomyces bacteria, research that she has continued to this day.

In 2002, Amy returned to Williams College, but this time as a professor in the Chemistry Department, where she has worked ever since (https://chemistry.williams.edu/profile/agehring/). Amy teaches courses in both introductory chemistry and biochemistry. One of her favorite things about this job is working with students in her lab. Here, they pursue research that blends elements from both her graduate school and postdoctoral research training. She studies soil bacteria, Streptomyces (see the picture that she is holding for an electron microscopy image of these), which produce molecules with important applications in medicine such as antibiotics, antifungals and anticancer drugs. The goal of her research is to understand the biochemical details of the organism’s life cycle and how this relates to the control of antibiotic production. It is particularly exciting to see students translate their knowledge from coursework into new discoveries in the lab. Amy is thrilled to have a job that allows her to both work with talented students and to pursue her intellectual interests through independent research. Outside of her job, Amy enjoys being with her family, including two daughters in 9th and 6th grade.

Amy works with many beginning college students each year. In terms of advice for students, she urges them to pursue subjects and careers that they find both exciting and challenging. Students sometimes make decisions based on what they think they should do or what they believe other people are expecting of them, which ultimately leaves them unhappy or unfulfilled. Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone and find your passion! Amy has been very lucky that she has found hers through college teaching and research, a career that she never even imagined as a high school student. Amy Gehring, we are in fact #OneBENZIE proud. Congratulations on your successes. We wish you and your family well, always.
You know how Mrs. Crossman feels....like, love, and sharing is a must!

 

 

 

 

Ted Quick - Class of 1986

WELCOME TO BENZIE COUNTY CENTRAL SCHOOLS FEATURED FRIDAY ALUMNI.
Today we would like to recognize 1986 alumni, Ted Quick. Ted attended Benzie County Central Schools (K-12), starting at Crystal Lake Elementary and later graduated from Benzie Central High School in 1986. He was active in the athletic program, participating in football, baseball, basketball, cross-country, and track. Ted was a member of two State Championship cross country teams at Benzie Central in 1984 and 1985. There were many teachers, coaches, and staff that influenced Ted while in high school, including (but not limited to) Mr. and Mrs. Lynch, Mr. Gehring, Mr. Sheets, Mr. Plont, and Mr. Siderman. They not only provided an excellent education, but taught many life lessons through education and athletics that Ted continues to utilize today in his professional and personal life.
While growing up in Benzie County, Ted learned the value of hard work while working for his parents in many of their family businesses, most notably, the Hungry Tummy Restaurant. He spent many hours in the kitchen, making the best pizza in the North! After graduation, he spent a few years working with his family, but due to his love for athletics and suffering a few of his own injuries along the way, Ted decided to pursue a career in sports medicine. He graduated from Grand Valley State University (Cum Laude) with a B.S. degree in Physical Education/Athletic Training in 1993. After college, Ted completed an internship at Hackley Hospital Sports Medicine in Muskegon, MI, in 1994, and accepted a position at the hospital later that year, providing rehabilitation services in the outpatient sports medicine clinic and providing athletic training services to Muskegon Heights High School (1994-2012). After leaving Muskegon Heights High School and surviving a hospital merger, Ted accepted the same position at Mercy Health Sports Medicine/ Muskegon High School in 2012. During his athletic training career, Ted has been fortunate to serve as the Athletic Trainer for many successful athletic teams. The Muskegon Heights Tigers basketball program made the MHSAA Final Four seven times and advanced to the finals three times. While at Muskegon High School (2012-present), the Big Reds won a basketball State Championship in 2014 and the football program advanced to the MHSAA finals five times, winning the State Championship in Division 3 in 2017. The Muskegon Big Reds have been playing football for 123 years, are the winningest high school football program in the State of Michigan, and rank seventh in the nation with 833 total wins!!
While working in the clinical rehabilitation setting, Ted has continued to expand his education in the sports medicine field. His interests in the field of strength and conditioning, injury prevention, and orthopedic rehabilitation has led him to obtain additional credentials. He earned his Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) designation through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) in 1997, became a certified Sports metrics instructor (ACL/knee injury prevention program) in 2006, and has obtained certification in the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) and the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). Ted continues to support the profession of Athletic Training and the GVSU Athletic Training Education Program by serving as an Affiliated Clinical Faculty member and teaching a few classes, and serving as an Affiliated Clinical Preceptor, working at Muskegon High School with GVSU undergraduate students in the Athletic Training Program. He has also supported the profession on the state level, serving as a committee member for the Michigan Athletic Trainers Society (Co-chair of Fundraising/Scholarship Committee, 2002-2008). For more information about the profession of Athletic Training, visit the National Athletic Trainers Association website at www.nata.org.
Ted lives in Norton Shores, MI, just south of Muskegon with his wife, Paula, and two daughters Rachel (18) and Taylor (14). In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf, kayaking, attending sporting events (go figure!) and travelling with his family. Their favorite places to visit include Gatlinburg, Disney World, and of course, Beulah and Northern Michigan as often as possible. If he has any advice for current Benzie Central students, it would be to develop a strong work ethic and live your life with the highest level of integrity possible. These are two values that can help you reach all of your goals and dreams, no matter what your situation. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard!! Go Huskies, and Go Big Reds!!
Ted, we are in fact #OneBENZIE proud of your journey and continued accomplishments. Your non-stop climb to achieve more is something we all can strive for. Continued success and good wishes to you and your family. Lastly, that pizza..yes! That is some good stuff!