Here’s when Eastern Iowa high school students are graduating

Thousands of students in Eastern Iowa are triumphantly walking across stages to receive their high school diplomas over the next couple weeks.

The general education classes, hands-on learning opportunities and extracurriculars offered to them in high school have shaped what many graduates plan to do next.

Olivia Vande Berg, 18, is planning to study history and oboe performance at the University of Iowa this fall. Although she’s not sure where either will lead her, it’s her experiences at Iowa City High School that are leading her to consider law school someday.

In Marion, twin brothers Parker and Emerson Gasper, 18, feel ready for next steps that are vastly different from each other. Parker plans to attend Iowa State University to study chemical engineering. Emerson, already a licensed pilot, plans to continue pursuing a career as a commercial airline pilot.

Between advanced classes in science, math and engineering and trades classes including residential construction, they feel prepared for the “real world” because of their education at Linn-Mar High School, the brothers agreed.

Olivia Vande Berg

Vande Berg was inspired by her grandfather, a former middle school band teacher, to start playing an instrument when she was in fifth grade.

When she asked him which instrument was the hardest to play, he said oboe or bassoon, Vande Berg said. She chose oboe and her brother chose bassoon.

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“It’s a unique challenge my fifth-grade self had never been exposed to before. I developed a deep love for the instrument and all kinds of music,” she said.

Now, Vande Berg is planning to major in oboe performance to “keep it a part of my life.” She’s excited to work with other oboists, learn more about music theory and the history of the instrument. While she’s unsure what role the oboe will play in her future, she knows she will have options. She could be a performer or a teacher.

Vande Berg also is considering a career as a lawyer because of her involvement in mock trial at City High.

“Part of why I’m double majoring is because I’m still not really sure what I want to do,” Vande Berg said. “Law would be fantastic and so much fun. Musical performance also would be incredibly fulfilling.”

Whichever career she chooses, Vande Berg said City High is the “best preparation” for her future she could have asked for.

She fell in love with her classes in high school not because of the content but because of her “engaging” teachers, Vande Berg said.

Parker and Emerson Gasper

Parker and Emerson competed this month against five teams, winning first place for an invention created for their Project Lead the Way class that detects ice accumulation on small airplanes.

Project Lead the Way is a nationally recognized program that provides students real-world experiences in science, technology, engineering and math.

Judging Parker and Emerson’s project were engineering teachers from Linn-Mar High, a Collins Aerospace engineer and former students of the program.

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The brothers are thinking about patenting their creation.

While commercial airplanes have ice detectors, it’s not as common on small aircrafts. As a pilot, Emerson was interested in remedying that.

The brothers created a box with pressure sensors that detects when the pressure drops because of ice accumulation. It alerts the pilot via Bluetooth.

Emerson said the device could be an “extra set of eyes” for a pilot.

Emerson said while Linn-Mar didn’t “teach me to clean my room,” he feels prepared for his future because of the hands-on classes he got to take, like Project Lead the Way.

Parker said his senior year was the most rigorous academic workload he’s taken. While challenging, he believes it will be similar to what he will experience in college. The classes he had access to in high school will go “hand-in-hand” with his future career, he said.

Here’s when students are graduating

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Linn County

Here are the upcoming graduation ceremonies in Linn County that will take place at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse, 370 First Ave. NE in downtown Cedar Rapids:

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Johnson County

Past graduations

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