News

State Leadership Conference Winners 

• 1st Place - Conor Enright in Business Management
• 2nd Place - Sawyer Brick, James Lyerly and Mason Seehafer in Banking & Financial Systems
• 2nd Place - Connor Mason and Oliver Qualls in Digital Video Production
• 3rd Place - Kyle Gruetzmacher in Advanced Accounting
• 4th Place - Ansh Patel in Securities & Investments
• 5th Place - Ian Brick in Agribusiness
• 5th Place - Claire Petersen in International Business
• 5th Place - Alayna Broullire and Payton Spaeth in Supply Chain Management

In all, 37 FBLA members competed at the 2026 State Leadership Conference in Green Bay. Categories included a variety of business and marketing related disciplines. In addition to competitive events, students learned from business professionals, toured local businesses, attended workshops and networked with students from across the state of Wisconsin.  
 

 

• Outstanding Ensemble
• Outstaning Pit Orchestra
• Outstanding Student-Run Crew
• Honorable Mention In A Lead Role: Caiya Klish as Rizzo
• Honorable Mention In A Lead Role: Sam Hornseth as Kenickie

 

 

 

 

Caiya Klish as Rizzo    

 

 

 

 

Sam Hornseth as Kenickie

Now in its 10th season, the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center’s Center Stage High School Musical Theater Program highlights the talent and contributions of more than 2,200 participating students across 34 area schools.

A team of trained adjudicators attended the participating schools' musical productions and provided educational feedback. Scores for each production were tabulated, and applications were reviewed to determine the program recognition recipients.

Participating schools and recognition recipients will be celebrated when the program culminates in a red-carpet, Tony Awards® style showcase at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center on May 16, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for the Center Stage Showcase are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased at the Fox CitiesP.A.C. ticket office in person, by phone at (920) 730-3760, or through the Fox Cities P.A.C. website and Ticketmaster online. Additional fees may apply.

 

Some debate whether the enormous price tag of space travel is worth the cost. 

For Rose, the answer is easy. 

“There’s no doubt there’s a lot of places where that money would be well spent on Earth,” said Rose, a 2015 De Pere High School graduate. “But you have to look at it as an investment in the future of our species. Learning about the universe is super important to learning more about humanity.

“Exploration is a core value of humanity. Yes, it costs money, but it’s worth it.”

Rose has seen the benefits firsthand. For nearly five years, he worked as a SPARTAN flight controller at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. SPARTAN stands for Station Power Articulation and Thermal Analysis. 

He was a member of the Mission Control team that manages the International Space System’s power and heating/cooling systems. The ISS has eight massive solar arrays that convert sunlight to electricity that powers everything from the toilets to laptops for experiments. And because space is such an extreme environment, the thermal system must be closely monitored so nothing gets too hot or too cold. 

“The space station is one of the most complex machines humanity has built,” Rose said. 

The ISS is an orbiting laboratory where astronauts conduct experiments that can have direct impact on Earth. For example, studying how microgravity affects the body can be compared to the loss of bone density as people age. Rose said some pharmaceuticals can be developed in space with fewer imperfections. 

Interplanetary travel and deep space missions also are being studied, and Rose believes that living in space is a real possibility. 

“There are a lot of resources in space, and if we can utilize those we can maybe extend our time on Earth,” he said. “We’ve landed (crafts) on Mars, we’ve walked on the moon. At this point it doesn’t feel like a technological problem, but more a matter of the political desire and the financial side.”

Although he had a strong interest in space as a child, Rose didn’t initially set out to be a rocket scientist. He enrolled at Michigan Tech on a football scholarship and majored in mechanical engineering. A friend alerted him to a school group called Aerospace Enterprise, which allows undergraduates to design and build satellites. 

Rose was applying to graduate schools during his senior year when, on a bit of a lark, he filled out an online application for NASA. Amazingly, that led to a 10-hour interview in Houston and a dream job offer.

Rose said his co-workers had a variety of backgrounds and skill sets. 

“NASA is very good at using diversity of thought to its advantage,” he said. “NASA needs all sorts of people. I worked with artists, pharmacists, people who came from the military. It was more about being passionate and good at what you do, rather than being good at math or something super specific.

“They are looking for how good you can work as part of a team and how quickly you can learn.”

About five years ago, an opportunity arose to be part of another team that builds systems to support the missions of NASA as well as other divisions of the space industry, such as commercial companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. 

Rose joined Orbion Space Technology, located in Houghton, Michigan. The focus there is on cutting-edge technology including electric propulsion, which Rose describes as being 20 times more fuel efficient than traditional propulsion systems used in space exploration. The advantages are being able to travel 20 times as far, or using 20 times less fuel and allowing more room on a spacecraft for astronauts’ food and other supplies. 

“The space station was awesome, but NASA is huge, and you do kind of feel lost in the enormity of it all,” Rose said. “Orbion is much smaller, and I can see my impact day-to-day.

“Things are changing so fast. The technology I’m working on now (didn’t exist) five years ago. All I really want out of my career is to leave an impact.”

There’s the added bonus of being much closer to home for both Rose and his wife, the former Sarah Kuehn, a 2015 graduate of DPHS. 

“You leave Wisconsin and might think you never want to go back, then you realize there are things you miss,” he said. “I love the Midwest.”

He also enjoys sharing his experiences with young learners, such as last December when he spoke to De Pere Middle School students. Rose pointed out that they are part of the first generation to grow up with humans continually in space. 

“NASA has made (space travel) routine,” he said. “Because it’s been happening for 25 years, to some maybe it loses its luster. But to me, it’s still very cool.”

In fact, Rose allows himself to dream about leaving gravity.

“I would still love to go to space,” he said. “If the opportunity ever came, it would be hard to turn it down.”

By Kerry Guyette, Hi-Light newsletter assistant editor, and DPHS Athletics secretary

 

Each year, the organization evaluates more than 18,000 schools across the country. Rankings are based on six indicators of school quality:

• College readiness
• Breadth of curriculum
• Scores on state proficiency tests
• Performance in reading, math, and science
• Underserved student performance
• Graduation rates

The weighted scores of those six indicators are transformed so each eligible school receives an overall percentile score between zero and 100. De Pere's score was 93.28. High schools are ranked against peers in descending order of their overall scores. Read more about US News and World Report's ranking methodology.

"We appreciate the recognition," says De Pere High School Principal Roger Allen. "It is one more data point that reflects the hard work being done by our students and staff with the support of families and the broader De Pere community."