Graduates share college plans and advice for younger students

One door has closed and a new one has opened for 2026 high school graduates.

Preslee Wallace graduated from Ridgewood High School with an honors diploma. She took many college classes and participated in the performing arts. This fall she will attend Wright State University and major in psychology.

“I hope to obtain my doctorate over time, that way I can have a successful career as a clinical psychologist,” Wallace said. “I have always strived to help those around me, and I feel that the mental health of people is overlooked and downplayed. Being able to diagnose my future patients creates pathways of remedies, treatments and possibly cures for their disorders, which can give them a much better way of healing or growing.”

Her best experiences in high school came from taking part in the performing arts.

“I first attended Ridgewood my eighth grade year,” Wallace said. “From eighth grade year through freshman year, my routine every day was simply going to school, returning home, laying in my room, going to sleep and repeating those steps. I had no friends to talk to during school. I ate lunch in a teacher’s room the entirety of freshman year. I had no after-school activities to keep me busy.”

That all changed for her when some of her fellow students persuaded her to join the performing arts.

“At first, I thought I was not cut out for band, drama or choir,” Wallace said. “I truly believed I had no talent or skills to even try, but I found out my cousin was teaching the color guard, the visual representation of marching band, and I decided to show up for one practice. I ended up loving it, spinning the flag and learning cool tosses. I made some new friends in the band and turns out they participated in other performing art activities other than marching band. So I was convinced to sign up for drama as well.”

She started with being a guard member in band and then part of the ensemble for her first musical.

“My senior year I ended up having a solo feature in the band show, and I played Wednesday Addams in the ‘Addams Family,’” Wallace said. “All thanks to my directors for always being so motivational and reassuring, along with my band mates and fellow actors for being so supportive and determined. My advice to any underclassmen is just to try things out, even if you doubt yourself. If you have a hard class you feel you cannot manage, just take it and put your best effort into it. If you have an after-school activity you feel you are not cut out for, try out anyways and see where it takes you.

"You can always drop a class if it seems too hard from the beginning. You can always quit a sport after the first season if you did not enjoy it. But you cannot decide that you do not want to do something just because you are scared or doubtful. Who knows? Maybe you will pass that college class. Maybe you will hit your first home run and celebrate with your awesome team members. Maybe you will get the lead in the musical. Maybe you will get a solo in band or choir. Maybe you will make it to playoffs as a football player. You never know unless you make the decision to try.”

Another recent Ridgewood graduate is Keira Schrock.

“My plans after graduation are to attend Ohio University, majoring in international business and minoring in fashion merchandising to hopefully attend law school after this,” she said. “Ridgewood, through academics and extracurricular activities, taught me that it’s OK to fail and there’s always going to be a community behind you. My advice for younger students is that time does in fact fly by and you need to cherish everything around you and absorb the resources you’re given in high school and never be afraid to fail because it’s always redirection.”

Mady Griffith completed her program at the Coshocton County Career Center and graduated from Ridgewood.

“I plan to attend COTC to become a cardiac nurse,” she said. “CCCC has shaped me in many ways by giving me many certifications to help me, and they’ve given me confidence. Soak it in. Time flies.”

River View graduate Hallie Wallace plans to continue her education at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she will major in health sciences and play softball.

“River View has helped prepare me in many ways,” she said. "River View has provided me with so many different opportunities with helping me get out into the community through Teen Leadership Corp and allowing me to do my senior project — the courthouse illumination project — since my sophomore year, having all kinds of different clubs to allow me to branch out socially in the school and being able to talk to people I wouldn’t always see in my day-to-day classes, as well as preparing me academically with their partnership with Zane State College, allowing students to take CCP courses and get experience with college courses.

"All these different opportunities will help me in college because it provided me with leadership, social and academic experiences/lessons that I will use for many years to come.”

Fellow RVHS graduate Elizabeth Unkefer learned a valuable lesson from her time in school that she plans to keep sharing with others.

“I plan to keep spreading kindness and finding ways to put happiness in people's days,” she said. “In my senior year, I learned that everyone could make a difference. I learned that you shouldn't let other people say you can't do something and you should just prove them all wrong."