Greater Gig Harbor Foundation 2020 Students of Distinction, Week Four

Students of Distinction is an annual project of the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation, the Peninsula School District and The Gateway, aimed at recognizing the achievements of outstanding students, whether in academics, athletics, art or industry. It carries special significance during the current health crisis, when schools are closed and students are relying on their own energy and determination to finish their education. This is the fourth of a series that will continue weekly through June, profiling a total of 36 accomplished students.

Tate McReynolds

Gig Harbor High senior is accomplished athlete, talented photographer and dedicated role model

Tate McReynolds is dual-sport athlete who succeeds on and off the court. In addition to her passion for sports, she is a talented photographer and videographer and a role model who’s contributed many hours to serving communities not only at school and locally but also beyond.

Described as an individual who displays a high class of character in all areas of her life, McReynolds has numerous accolades in basketball and fastpitch.

She started playing basketball in first grade, following in the footsteps of her father and brothers. She fell in love with the sport, as well as the relationships she formed with her coaches and teammates.

“I’ll be able to keep those relationships my whole life,” McReynolds says. “I also like helping other people be the best they can be.”

McReynolds’ work ethic, dedication and commitment to the varsity girls’ basketball program contributed to the team’s state championship, says assistant coach Emily Owens.

“Tate holds herself to a high standard and never gives up,” Owens says. “She is an individual who plays until the final buzzer sounds, continues her climb through any and all obstacles - and through adversity, she finds ways to smile, laugh and pick those around her up.”

Making new friends not only through athletics but also her community service has been the highlight of her high school years, McReynolds says. She’s proud to have grown from a shy freshman to someone who helps other shy freshmen.

“As a student, an athlete and a role model, Tate leads by example,” says her photography teacher, Tate Lenkaitis. “Her peers and teachers look up to her and respect her as an authentic and down-to-earth student.”

McReynolds has explored her interest in photography and videography by pursuing multiple classes and taking photos and videos at various events and games. She’s even dabbled in entrepreneurship, starting a business to offer senior portraits for friends and classmates.

She plans to turn that passion into a career, and study film and media, with an emphasis on production, at the University of Utah.

“I like to share how I see the world with photography and videography,” she says. “Being able to do that as a career is important to me because it makes me happiest and allows me to connect with other people.”

Category: Athletics

Education: Senior, Gig Harbor High School

GPA: 3.68

Parents: Marc and Debra McReynolds

Activities/Achievements: varsity basketball league, district and state champion; MPV, Coaches’ Award, WIAA Outstanding Scholar, Gateway Athlete of the Week, Gig Harbor Living Athlete of the Month, team captain; varsity fastpitch captain, JV captain, four-year starter, top 7th finish at state; youth and Special Olympics basketball coach; 8th-grade girls group leader; Yearbook, sports games and events photographer and videographer; volunteer for various projects, mission trips and community service groups; girls softball coach

Favorite teacher: Tate Lenktaitis, digital photography. “We immediately connected over our passion for not only photography but also for people, sports and music. She urges me to never settle, to always keep learning and to always create for the sole purpose of expressing myself.”

Best thing about high school: “Gig Harbor High has been like a home to me, constantly challenging me to be better.”

Kel Sonnen

Peninsula High senior is inspirational student athlete who’s grown stronger due to adversity

Kel Sonnen is a star athlete with an outstanding academic record and a strong work ethic both on and off the field. Described as a compassionate and caring individual, Sonnen has made an impression by showing genuine interest in others.

His road in life hasn’t been easy, however. He has struggled with physical pain throughout high school and had multiple misdiagnoses of his medical condition. Despite the pain, he pushed to attend classes every day and improve his grades after his academics suffered.

“I wouldn’t have been able to stay as positive as I was without the help of my friends, family and faculty at PHS,” Sonnen says.

While working through his health issue, Sonnen learned as a junior that his father had brain cancer and the prognosis was poor. After his father’s surgery and his mother’s return to her full-time job, Sonnen stepped up to help take care of his father and his siblings.

He’s grateful that his school community and friends rallied around him and his family.

“Emotionally, it’s been a struggle at times to stay focused in school,” he says.

He says that adversity has made him stronger and gave him confidence he can do whatever he puts his mind to.

“In the months that have followed his father’s cancer diagnosis, Kel’s life has significantly changed, but his kind heart and sympathetic nature have grown even more significantly,” says his history and civics teacher, Kathryn Crabtree.

Sonnen used soccer as an avenue to take his mind off his adversities. He was captain of both his club and high school teams. He also found time to volunteer as a math tutor as well as take flying lessons, working toward his goal of becoming a commercial pilot for cargo or passenger planes.

“Kel has the ability to think quickly and confidently, making correct decisions under sometimes unpopular or stressful situations. This is a characteristic which is mandatory to the success of any professional pilot,” says Paul Akulschin, an airline pilot who’s known Sonnen for 17 years.

Sonnen has been taking flight training, and plans to study aviation at Central Washington University.

Category: Overcoming adversity

Education: Senior, Peninsula High School

GPA: 3.7

Parents: Cory and Margaret Sonnen

Activities/Achievements: Soccer Scholar Athlete, Coaches’ Award, First Team South Sound, South Sound Conference Academic Excellence Award, team captain; club soccer captain; wrestling; math tutor; 15+ hours of flight training

Favorite teacher: Kathryn Crabtree, social studies. “She makes sure I am focusing on my goals to stay on track despite my struggles. She’s kindhearted to all her students, yet demands that you strive for your best self, no matter what you are facing.”

Best thing about high school: the positive culture. “It’s due to not only the incredibly supportive and purposeful staff, but due to the students themselves. We really do have a culture of acceptance and positiveness.”

Ashley Ryan

Gig Harbor High senior overcomes challenges to build success, wants to help others do the same

Ashley Ryan has overcome multiple obstacles to excel academically and create a successful start for her path in life. She’s maintained a 3.9 GPA while taking rigorous classes, despite a difficult family life and personal struggles.

Ryan lost her mother to cancer when she was 15. Her home life became unhealthy after her loss, and Ryan endured emotional and other abuse while also taking care of younger sisters. She suffered from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result, and was hospitalized after attempting to harm herself.

Now living with her grandparents, Ryan is healthy and involved at school.

“I feel I’ve overcome adversity with help from other people because I had opportunities to get help,” she says.

Ryan says even her friends noticed she’s more friendly and talkative now, and a lot more comfortable with her life.

“Despite suffering from PTSD, she is now emotionally stable and a true delight to be around,” says family friend Lily Kregenow, who’s known Ryan for many years. “I am truly impressed by all the obstacles she has overcome in her 18 years and the great decisions she is making despite all the challenges she has faced.”

While her home life made it difficult for Ryan to participate in extracurricular activities, she found ways to contribute and be active in her school community in smaller roles. She volunteered at TideFest, where she also played piano, as well as for other community-service projects.

Ryan’s academic work has paid off when she was accepted into the honors program at Western Washington University, where she plans to choose between majors in psychology or speech communication disorders.

Both careers were inspired by her own experiences. Being a speech pathologist is compelling for Ryan because she didn’t speak until after she turned 5. A psychology degree, on the other hand, would give her the opportunity to help other high school students struggling with similar challenges as hers.

“My plan is to do something that directly involves me helping others,” she says.

She’s already done that by opening up about her struggles to help her friends and peers. One idea she had was to discuss with the school board ways to make mental health resources more accessible to students.

“I had to embrace some things I wasn’t comfortable with,” she says. “I feel it’s important for other people to know about emotional abuse and have better mental health resources.”

Category: Overcoming adversity

Education: Senior, Gig Harbor High School

GPA: 3.9

Guardians: Diane and Will Lemmon

Activities/Achievements: AP classes, piano, TideFest and voting drive volunteer, suicide prevention club, sophomore class senator

Favorite teacher: Alyse Yeaman, art. “Her cheerful demeanor always makes my day. She helped me a lot with my struggles and was the only person who reached out when she noticed my depression. She’s one of the few adults who genuinely care for me and helped me a lot in my recovery process.”

Best thing about high school: the people. “I don’t think I would be remotely as happy as I am today if not for the friends I met along the way or even the teachers who guided and helped me.”

Jonna Waage

Peninsula High senior is a determined three-sport athlete, top scholar

Jonna Waage is a well-rounded student, athlete and student leader who has pursued many interests in high school. She played three sports, competed with DECA and helped manage Peninsula’s student store — all while taking rigorous courses and maintaining a near-perfect GPA.

“Jonna has a work ethic that is far beyond that of the normal high school student,” says her volleyball coach, Katrina Cardinal. “Her academic and athletic capabilities have been successfully coupled with unprecedented ambition.

Waage started playing softball around age 4 or 5 and says she fell in love with it. It’s a family tradition as well, and she hopes to continue playing on a club team in college.

She says that being part of three sports teams in high school — volleyball, softball and basketball — was “a lot to handle,” but she likes staying busy.

“Playing three sports took a lot of late nights of studying, missed classes and test retakes but I was very fortunate to have compassionate teachers to help me be the best student-athlete I could be,” she says. “They helped me gain grit and determination with an extra push, expectations and allowances to learn from my mistakes.”

Marketing and business were one of Waage’s areas of academic focus. She was a member of the DECA marketing club for three years and served as president in the senior year. She was also shift manager for two years and financial manager for three years the student store.

“The student store has prepared me for the future, because I know the basics of how a business is run,” she says.

Her marketing teacher and DECA adviser, Matt Robles, describes Waage as a “thoughtful, caring, intelligent, hard-working and resilient individual.”

“She leads her peers through tremendous positive encouragement,” Robles says.

Waage has looked for opportunities to incorporate her love for sports into academic activities. She made a basketball-themed game for her final project in an AP computer science (programming) course. She also loved working with baseball statistics in her statistics class, which inspired her career choice. She plans to study statistics at the University of Idaho and pursue the dream of becoming a Major League Baseball data analyst.

Category: Career and technical

Education: Senior, Peninsula High School

GPA: 3.98

Parents: Jon and Amy Waage

Activities/Achievements: DECA president and districts competitor, student store shift manager and financial manager, American Sign Language, volleyball, softball, basketball, AP classes

Favorite teacher: Jennifer Nichols, precalculus and AP computer science. “I look up to her as more than just a teacher. I find her attitude and outlook on life to be very funny and relatable, and she furthered my love of math and logical thinking.”

Best thing about high school: “the support given to each and every student to make sure that their social and emotional needs are met, as well as their academic success..”

This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 9:34 PM.