The countdown to the last day of school began on August 16. Now, nine months later, seniors are preparing for May 12 when they will experience their final six hours as high school students.

Senior Class President Ike Bertels, who has been avidly involved in clubs and teams at EHS including the Edwardsville Peer Influence Club (EPIC), class officers, National Honor Society (NHS), National Spanish Honor Society and the baseball team, is ready to further his education at the University of Arkansas where he will study agricultural and biological systems engineering.

Bertels attributes his success in high school to his brother, Caleb, who currently attends the University of Arkansas.

“My brother paved the way for me and really showed me what I needed to do,” he said. “A lot of what I have done in high school has been influenced by him in some way.”

Senior Anna Johnson is also ready to move on from high school. She will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall.

Johnson dedicated her time to a plethora of clubs during her four years at EHS but honed in on her leadership skills this year as the NHS President.

Senior and previous Student Council President Mary Webb is excited to begin a new chapter of her life at Marquette University. While she is looking forward to becoming an impactful student on her college campus, she won’t forget the lessons she was taught during her time in high school.

“Student Council definitely has taught me a lot,” she said. “There’s a lot of working together and working with people in the community, and I definitely think those are skills I wouldn’t have learned without StuCo.”

While Bertels will not miss attending six classes in a day, the friends he made through clubs at EHS will be missed.

Webb and Johnson will also miss the relationships they’ve made at EHS.

“Kids at EHS are so passionate about their interests,” Johnson said. “I loved meeting so many of my friends in these groups and then getting to see them each day.”

While seniors are excited to graduate, they will continue to value EHS and the staff and students inside.
“I’m thankful for attending a school that has both a tremendous staff and set of administrators,” Bertels said. “I would like to thank every student for making Edwardsville High School one of the premier high schools in the State of Illinois, and I look forward to seeing what everyone accomplishes in the future.”