Each year, along with publishing profiles of the newly minted Academic All-Stars, the Journal-World makes a habit of checking in with the All-Stars from 10 years before. And each time, we set out to answer one simple question: What have you been up to since high school?

Following in this tradition, we caught up with as many 2008 Academic All-Stars as possible. In their own words, where are they now?

Stephanie Drahozal

Then: Ranked first in her class at Lawrence High School, Drahozal was heavily involved in school and Lawrence community theater. Back then, she told the Journal-World she prioritized her accomplishments in theater and working with other people above accolades like a perfect 36 on the ACT.

Now: “I went to Washington University in St. Louis for college, graduated in 2012 with a BA in Theatre. After college, I worked at Walt Disney World for about six months, then moved to Madison WI to work at Epic, a healthcare software company (I’m still there, just celebrated my fifth anniversary at my job). I’m in quality assurance; I test our software. I’m really involved in community theatre in the Madison area; I’m the Vice President of a local theatre group & have done a lot of both onstage & offstage work. I’m also the music director of an a cappella group with a bunch of my coworkers. I keep pretty busy!”

Advice: “Find an activity to do outside of schoolwork with a group of people you like. Getting involved with a cappella music was definitely the best choice I made in college, & it developed a lot of skills that I still use. Plus it was really fun, & I’ve met so many good friends through my artistic ‘extracurriculars’.”

Isaac Fisher

Then: In 2008, Fisher attributed his academic success — a 3.99 GPA and the top ranking in his class at Perry-Lecompton High School — to accountability he learned from his parents and teachers. During his time in high school, he was an active community volunteer and earned the equivalent of an Eagle Scout Award through his involvement in the Royal Rangers, a Christian scouts organization. Fisher told the Journal-World he was set to attend Washburn University to study pre-med and double major in biology and Spanish.

Now: “Since graduation, I have done quite a bit of traveling. I got a BA in Spanish with a triple minor in French, Latin American Studies, and International Studies. While doing my BA, I studied abroad in Mexico twice for 6 months; the second time I was actually studying French. Then I studied in France for 6 months for my last semester.

After graduation, I did 7 months of a MA in [Teaching English as a Foreign Language] in Mexico, but ended up having visa problems and had to move back to the states. At that point, I did a MA in Second Language Acquisition in Spanish at KSU. I am currently at the University of Iowa and am making a transition to Speech Language Pathology.”

Advice: “TRAVEL! Study abroad! Don’t be so worried about getting to the destination or getting your diploma that you forget to enjoy the process!”

Hannah Frydman

Then: As a 4.0 student at Free State High School, Frydman enjoyed the freedom to use multiple disciplines that fit her many interests. She took classes in orchestra, choir, photography and history, melding them together to make historical documentaries. Back then, she told the Journal-World she was inspired by several of her Free State teachers, who instilled in her that, “it’s important to really try and take in everything that you’re learning.”

Now: “After graduating from Free State, I attended Smith College, a small liberal arts college in Northampton, Mass, where I spent a lot of time singing — in glee club, chamber singers, and in an a cappella group. I also spent my junior year studying abroad in Paris, and my senior year living in the French house and writing a senior thesis about a French feminist named Madeleine Pelletier. I graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in History, a second major in French Studies, and an archives concentration in 2012. After graduation, I received a fellowship to spend another year in Paris at the Ecole normale supérieure before starting a Ph.D. program in history at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. After finishing my coursework at Rutgers, I spent yet another year in Paris, where I conducted dissertation research thanks to a Chateaubriand fellowship in 2016-2017. I currently live with my wife and way too many books in Somerville, Mass., where I am writing my dissertation, entitled, “Between the Lines: Sex, Work, and Business in the Parisian Classifieds, 1881-1940,” and looking forward to my next research trip to Paris.”

Advice: “Be adventurous and curious, take risks. Most of the things that are worth doing are scary the first time you do them. It was scary for me to leave Lawrence to go to college on the east coast. It was scary to make a fool of myself learning a foreign language and even scarier to study in the French education system for a year. But once I throw myself into each of these things, I am always glad I did. Education gives you the opportunity to make your mind a place you’ll want to live in for the rest of your life and learning to think in new ways and about new things will be useful no matter what career you decide to pursue.”

Connor Hartpence

Then: Hartpence took advantage of attending a smaller high school in Eudora to shine inside and outside the classroom. He compiled a 4.0 GPA and the top rank in his class while serving as captain of the soccer team and the student council president. At the time, he told the Journal-World he was considering majoring in chemical or petroleum engineering, but was also considering entering medicine.

Now: “I am currently a [second] year family medicine resident in Wichita at the Via Christi Family Medicine Residency. I completed my undergrad at K-State with a degree in Microbiology and then completed medical school in Cleveland, Ohio at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. After residency, I plan to practice family medicine in Kansas, although the exact location has yet to be determined.”

Advice: “It’s okay to not know exactly what you want to do with your life. Get involved in things that you care about/believe in and push yourself out of your comfort zone.”

Wesley Phipps

Then: As a top student at Free State High School, Phipps was set on becoming a lawyer specializing in civil liberties. He was a member of Free State’s four-speaker debate state championship team his junior year, which taught him how to quickly review mass amounts of information and come up with an argument on a number of topics. He said at the time that attending Free State “helped me become a lot more confident in myself.”

Now: “After graduating from Free State High School, I attended Grinnell College where I majored in Sociology and completed the Education program. Since graduating from Grinnell, I have been working as a high school Language Arts teacher in Iowa, and I feel really lucky to be able to encourage students to think critically and creatively.”

Advice: “Take time to listen. In high school, you will make many important decisions about higher education and careers that will shape the rest of your life. Taking time to listen to yourself and others is an important step in making those choices.”

Marianne Schroer

Then: Perseverance was the theme of Schroer’s high school career at Baldwin High School. Faced with frequent leg pain that threatened to derail her tennis career, she underwent two surgeries and at the time, was not ruling out a comeback during her college days. In the classroom, she was a National Merit finalist and also served as the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.

Now: “[I] graduated from Duke University with a degree in Economics and a minor in French. Since 2012, [I’ve] worked at the Atlantic Coast Conference. In [my] most recent position as Director of External Affairs, [I] focused on strategic communications and public relations for the league, as well as event planning and logistics. In April, [I] moved to a Durham-based startup, Teamworks, where [I am] the Marketing and Communications Manager. When not at work, [I enjoy] going to concerts, doing Pure Barre and yoga, and volunteering as the Membership Director of the local chapter of Women In Sports and Entertainment (WISE).”

Advice: “Be present in your life and find joy in the moment, but don’t become complacent — dream big and work hard to make it happen.”

Brooke Sutherland

Then: As she prepared to graduate at the top of her class at Bishop Seabury Academy, Sutherland’s plans for the future were clear: She would go to Washington and Lee University to study journalism with the goal of being a sports broadcaster. She told the Journal-World the independent curriculum and teachers at Seabury adequately prepared her to attend college.

Now: “I graduated valedictorian from Washington and Lee University with a degree in journalism and French. While in school, I was inducted to academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa and national leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa. After graduation, I joined Bloomberg News in New York as a financial journalist. I currently cover mergers and acquisitions, activist investors and industrial companies, including General Electric Co., as a columnist for Bloomberg Gadfly and appear regularly on Bloomberg TV.”

Advice: “Fight hard for opportunities and take advantage of every one you get. Never give in to self-doubt. Be open to new career paths or a different twist on your dream job. Odds are you may not end up where you think you will as a high school senior, but enjoy the journey as much as you can.”

Kayci Vickers

Then: “Being a part of things just teaches you to be committed,” Vickers told the Journal-World as she readied for graduation. A member of the Eudora High School volleyball and softball teams, as well as the band and the Future Business Leaders of America, a heavily-involved Vickers planned to attend the University of Kansas to double-major in cognitive psychology and biology with hopes of studying cognitive neuroscience in graduate school.

Now: “Since graduating high school, I earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas, where I majored in Behavioral Neuroscience and minored in Quantitative Psychology. I was then accepted into the Ph.D. program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA where I’ve been studying health-related behavior change and rehabilitation outcomes in populations experiencing cognitive decline (primarily after brain injury). I currently hold a master’s degree in Clinical Neuropsychology, am an adjunct professor in Drexel’s psychology department, and work at the Penn Memory Center (an Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center at the University of Pennsylvania). I recently matched to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA for my final year of pre-doctoral training.”

Advice: “Go big, work hard, appreciate the people around you, and always make time for things that make you happy.”