A dozen former Hornets share experiences

By Robert Williams

Editor

Frazee-Vergas High School Counselor Ta Fett had been planning a session for students in 10th through 12th grade to listen to a group of recent graduates and learn from their combined experiences after leaving school.

Fett made that happen this year in hosting the first Alumni Forum at the school’s media center Thursday, Dec. 21. Fett’s group was a dozen students with eclectic and varying backgrounds, which allowed students in the audience to hear from a big group of perspectives.

“When I started thinking about doing this, I threw it out there to a lot of people and it was great that I had a lot of people who could make it,” said Fett. “I wanted a variety of jobs, but also kids that made an impact at Frazee in a positive way.”

Returning to school to participate were: Josie Tappe (2015), Austin Tegteimer (2016), David Glander, (2017), Cassidy Ziegler (2017), Ryan Roble (2018), Tanner Tappe (2018), Greta Nelson (2020), Grace Jaroszewski (2021), Abby Nagel (2021), Ellie Reierson (2021), Paige Schaefer (2021), and Ethan Wothe (2021).

Each former Hornet introduced themselves and described what they have been pursuing after leaving Frazee-Vergas high school, which included a wide range of pursuits from engineering degrees to adventure.

Josie Tappe ‘15 played basketball at Concordia College in Moorhead and graduated with a physical education and health degree in 2019. She taught for a year in Park Rapids before relocating back to the Fargo-Moorhead metro. She currently works at Moorhead Aviation Services. She also returned to school to complete a one-year speech language pathology program before two more years of graduate school.

Austin Tegteimer ‘16 took a few years off after graduating in Frazee before completing a culinary program in Miami. He currently splits time between Minnesota and California. Here, he works at Spanky’s and does project management in California.

David Glander ‘17 attended Alexandria Technical & Community College to get an associates of applied science degree in mechanical drafting, design and engineering technology. He lives in Bemidji and earned a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree at Bemidji State University. He works at LaValley Industries as a design engineer.

Cassidy Ziegler left Frazee in 2017 and went to Bemidji State University where she got a degree in Mass Communications. She spent three years bouncing back and forth between Idaho and Montana working an array of jobs from teaching and coaching to running a cafe. She also earned her real estate license. Ziegler recently moved back to the area and is the marketing director at Design 2 Sell in Detroit Lakes.

Ryan Roble ‘18 studied at NDSCS in Wahpeton attaining his associates degree in electrical technology. He became an electrician and began his career at JDP Electric Inc. in Fargo and has worked in the field for four years.

Tanner Tappe ‘18 admitted school was never his thing and he currently works at BTD Manufacturing in Detroit Lakes. He is the third shift welding lead and has worked at BTD for six years. 

Greta Nelson ‘20 is a senior at AMDA College of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles finishing  up her bachelor’s of fine arts degree in commercial dance.

Abby Nagel ‘21 is an elementary education major at MSUM.

Grace Jaroszewski ‘21 lives in Chicago pursuing an early childhood special education degree at Loyola University.

A ‘21 graduate, Paige Schaefer, who is one of Frazee’s American FFA Degree holders, along with an honors graduate of the University of North Dakota, is a former Hornet who left Frazee with both her diploma and her Associates Degree after taking advantage of college coursework while in high school. She is pursuing her Master’s Degree in school counseling at MSUM and working at Fargo Davies high school. Schaefer’s plans for 2024 are to intern with Fett at the high school.

Ellie Reierson ‘21, like Schaefer, left Frazee with her associates degree in hand and finished her bachelors degree in biology and a minor in accounting at Mayville State University last year. She’s currently working as an accountant at Renneberg Hardwoods in Menahga.

Ethan Wothe ‘21 went to Alexandria Technical & Community College and earned a degree in law enforcement in 2023. He is currently a police officer in Detroit Lakes.

Fett prompted each alum to describe what their lives were like in the transition between high school and college, along with any common misconceptions they had and what they learned in the process.

Tanner Tappe said he wanted to work hard and make money by pushing himself through high school and getting into the workforce.

“There are a lot of kids like Tanner,” Fett said. “Just because you don’t like school doesn’t mean you can’t go on and be successful.”

Tappe discussed how on-the-job training and gaining more experience has benefited his efforts at BTD.

Tegteimer was big into the social side of school and started working as a manager at Spanky’s while in high school before moving to Miami to complete a culinary program, which benefited him upon his return. Tegteimer, a Vergas native, also encouraged kids to get involved in local government. He was on multiple committees, including the EDA/HRA in Vergas. 

Tegteimer has also spent a lot of time traveling the world and encouraged kids to seek out new adventures and experiences with different cultures.

Fett did an excellent job of moving the conversation around the group finding tangents that were relative to the experience of deciding what to do after high school.

Josie Tappe discussed the misconceptions of having to attend a four-year college and spoke on how she wished she would have taken a gap year between high school and college to further explore what she wanted to pursue.

“I don’t think there is a bad way to go, just take a step back and look at do I really want to do this? Or am I just doing this because that’s what the crowd thinks I should do?”

Fett followed up with a discussion on what success is and how it is perceived to be acquiring money, but essentially, it is finding one’s true passions, whether they are found in work or one’s personal life.

“There is research that proves that once you meet your basic needs and have a little extra, any money beyond that does not increase your level of happiness,” she said. “Success is finding peace and happiness in your life—that’s really it.”

Reierson addressed managing time when pursuing athletics at college and stressing the importance of the student-athlete balance. Reierson played volleyball at Mayville State and discussed time management and how much time athletics take up and how it becomes a year-round pursuit.

“You need to be a student before you need to be an athlete,” she said.

Jaroszewski explained how she was fortunate that she always knew what she wanted to do and also how she made the decision to move away from home to Chicago to pursue her degree.

Part of the conversation revolved around self-doubt or other people questioning one’s pursuits.

Abby Wothe and Greta Nelson addressed the issue from an interesting spread of experience where Wothe was questioned on pursuing a teaching career, in comparison to Nelson who moved to California to pursue dance as a career.

The duo had similar experiences despite the big differences in their career pursuits.

“Surround yourself with people who support your dreams,” said Fett. “It’s really that easy.”

Nelson also talked about coming from a small town to Los Angeles and how much she learned about herself as a person in that transition.

Cassidy Ziegler’s story added even more to that level of the discussion as she graduated college and had a desire to go live in the mountains, which she did for three years in a 13-foot camper.

“I took a road trip with my grandma after college and didn’t come back,” she said.

She lived completely off the grid and was fueled by adventure and wanting to see the world before deciding to move back home and she now works in a job that is the complete opposite of how she was living. 

She also noted how she did not use her degree for 3.5 years and how it did not immediately benefit her, but did in the long run and helped her get the career she now has.

Roble, like Tanner Tappe, discussed how a two-year degree aided him in his pursuit of becoming a journeyman and full-time electrician. Roble is a journeyman in North Dakota where the pass rate of the journeyman test is only 20 percent.

“It’s not an easy test to pass,” he said. “There are other avenues like union electricians that have their own program you can go through.”

Extra learning opportunities on the job were part of his success story.

Schaefer was planning on going to law school and took the LSAT to go to law school before she had a change of heart and wanted to pursue school counseling instead.

“I really wasn’t feeling it, to say the least,” she said. “Going with your gut is really important. People take it for granted. It’s stressful working full-time and going to school full-time, but I don’t feel stressed because I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to. It’s not something you know. It’s something you feel.”

Glander wrapped up the chat with having a plan from high school through post-secondary education on the way to becoming an engineer. He also explained how he uses connections to help him at work and at home where he is renovating his house.

“It’s important to make those connections because you don’t know what you’re going to be doing in the future,” he said.

One of those examples was calling Roble up for advice on an electrical job.

Student success coordinator Jerry Hanson closed the presentation with a talk on overcoming rejections, which happen to everyone pursuing careers. He cited a couple examples of his former students who have gone on to success after overcoming rejection.

“There are lots of opportunities out there; don’t take no for an answer,” he said.