Every year, Woodbury Magazine celebrates a few of our accomplished highschool students in these pages: kids who have excelled at their schoolwork, in the arts and on the playing field. Behind every hardworking student is a support team—family, friends and often a mentor who encourages and inspires our best and brightest. As it turns out, the mentor and mentee give each other much more than they know.
Valerie Hohol
New Life Academy
Valerie Hohol is a talented basketball and softball player and has played pitcher and first base for 11 years. “I enjoyed playing the different sports because of the competition and social interactions with my teammates,” she says. Her mind-boggling list of honors in softball alone include offensive player of the year, MVP, first rookie of the year, MFCA All-Section Team, State Tournament All-Tournament Team, MFCA All-Section Team, MCAA All-Conference Honorable Mention, State Tournament All-Tournament Team, MVP, MCAA All-Conference, MFCA All-Section Team State Tournament All-Tournament Team, Class “A” All-State first Pioneer Press All-East Metro High School Softball Team, MFCA All-Section Team, MVP and MCAA First Team All-Conference. Whew!
Valerie’s high school years are also studded with academic awards and achievements such as math student of the year, dean’s list, outstanding academic excellence A-honor roll, NHS, outstanding academic excellence Student Council, volunteer work and Sunday school teacher. Many people probably don’t know that Valerie loves to bake. “Sometimes when I get bored in the summertime or on a day off I will just pull out a recipe and bake it for fun,” she says.
Mentor meets Mentee
Valerie’s mentor is the assistant coach of her New Life Academy basketball team, Tromesa May, aka Coach T. They met during basketball season in Valerie’s sophomore year. Coach T. was new to the school, having just accepted the position of assistant coach.
The Mentee (Valerie Hohol)
How does your mentor inspire you?
Coach T. sets high standards for me and expects me to achieve them. She challenges me to be the best person and player I can possibly be. Coach T. is also inspiring because she is an amazing woman of God, and I strive to be like her in my faith journey. She also is inspiring because she tells us the truth, even if it is sometimes hard to hear. It makes me feel as if she will tell me the truth even under difficult circumstances.
Do you see yourself becoming a mentor?
I do see myself becoming a mentor. I love helping others, and I feel that being able to share my experiences and knowledge with others would be very rewarding. I look forward to seeing if I can take on this new role because I feel that I would make a positive impact on someone else’s life.
The Mentor (Tromesa May)
What are Valerie’s strengths?
Valerie has the ability to connect with both adults and her peers. She is a very hard worker and is always trying to improve herself as a person, not just as an athlete. Valerie handles pressure very well; as a coach I know that I expect a lot out of her every game and practice. I set the bar higher for Valerie than a lot of my other players and she exceeds those expectations all the time.
How has Valerie affected you as a mentor?
Valerie probably does not even know this, but she motivates me to work harder in all aspects of my life. She is so great at balancing school, basketball and softball and she does it all without complaining and gives 100 percent. So when my life seems to be too overwhelming, knowing that Valerie is working hard and balancing everything helps motivate me.
What do you wish for Valerie’s future?
My main wish for Valerie is just happiness. She works so hard in the classroom, on the court and on the softball field, she deserves for it all to pay off, which I am sure it will. I hope that Valerie continues to grow into a beautiful young woman of God. Equally important though, I hope she continues to have fun doing it all.
Austen Macalus
Woodbury High School
Austen Macalus has played hockey since age 6. The fast pace and excitement hooked him; if there was a presentation or art project in school, he’d incorporate hockey in some way or another. Austen has since made room in his life for other pursuits. He’s a tennis player, the co- president of Student Council and a member of NHS, Link Crew, choir, Student Announcements, Super Fans and Junior Statesmen of America.
Austen says, “I love English and social studies. With English, there is a creative element of writing and being able to connect different thoughts together. With history, I enjoy seeing different patterns of development and connecting events and cultures throughout the world.” Austen likes making videos “either for school or for fun, which I do with a few of my buddies.” We’re not sure where he finds the time, but Austen is also a barista at Starbucks.
Mentor meets Mentee
Austen and Lanka Liyanapathiranage (“Mr. L” as Austen calls him) met when Mr. L. was Austen’s fifth and sixth grade teacher at Woodbury Elementary School. Mr. L. taught him again at Woodbury Middle School in seventh grade. Austen began hanging out in Mr. L.’s classroom with a few other kids after school just to talk and help file papers, put up projects, clean and organize the classroom. In the summer, Mr. L. took care of Austen and another friend while their parents were working, and soon became a close family friend as well as a mentor.
The Mentee (Austen Macalus)
How has Mr. L. affected you?
I have been affected by Mr. L. in so many ways. He has not only taught me in academics but also life. He constantly challenges me to think more critically about the way I conduct myself and the way others are affected by my actions.
Are you moved to be a mentor yourself?
I hope that one day I could be even part of the mentor Mr. L. was to me. I think that my outlook on what I want to accomplish in my life has changed, so that I can have the same effect on someone else that Mr. L. has had on me.
The Mentor (Lanka Liyanapathiranage)
How do you spend time with Austen now?
With age comes more challenging topics. We talk about college, changes in high school (including the people: his teachers, his peers, his co-workers); we watch documentaries, talk about social issues and what he wants to do as an adult—which is still up in the air.
How has Austen grown?
One of the mantras I used while Austen was in elementary school is one that has stuck with him and explains my motives too: People are the most important thing in the world. Knowing this and living by it are a challenge for most people. We often have discussions that are based around doing the right thing. Even if it means sacrifice. Even if it means judgment. Even if it means loss.
What do you wish for Austen’s future?
I hope he takes his passions and invests in them. I know he will be successful in whatever he pursues. His charisma and drive will take him as far as he wants to go. I also wish that he understands that, with the good, there will be obstacles. And knowing this, he should realize he is equipped with many skills and resources, but moreover, a strong support system that will help him overcome those obstacles. And mostly, that people are the most important thing in the world.
Abby Winston
East Ridge High School
Ask Abby Winston what sports she plays and she’ll smartly counter with “Do theater and choir count?” The soprano has been in the East Ridge choir program since ninth grade and is also in the Carolers (an extra-curricular winter choir) and Blackwing (East Ridge’s show choir). “The idea of a group of people with very different voices coming together and having a beautiful, blended sound attracted me to choir,” Abby says.
As a young girl, Abby’s parents took her to plays at Woodbury High School and the Children’s Theatre, which moved her to try acting. She is now a theater president at East Ridge, has a speech varsity letter and is a Minnesota State Thespian. A long list of awards grace the talented teen: community service officer for the East Ridge Choir, participant in Minnesota ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) Women’s Honor Choir, member of North-Central ACDA Regional Mixed Honor Choir, two superior ratings at solo-ensemble contest, two varsity letters in choir and a member of the Minnesota All-State Lutheran Choir. She competes in the category of Great Speeches on the East Ridge Speech Team, is involved in Link Crew and Ambassadors. She’s active at her church, volunteers at summer camps and serves on the youth leadership team. As if all that weren’t enough, she also loves to play the ukulele.
Mentor meets Mentee
Abby met her mentor, Eric Mark Olson (known as EMO) at summer camp in Shell Lake, Wisconsin. Olson is the director of the musical theater camp where Abby is now in her fourth year. Olson also owns the Three Act Theater Company in New York City.
The Mentee (Abby Winston)
What inspires you about your mentor?
Even though we are only at camp for a week, EMO always tries to get us out of our comfort zone, which is something I struggle with in performance.
How has mentorship benefited you?
For me, having a mentor has allowed me to increase my confidence and learn about theater from a very experienced person. Having someone who always believes in you and pushes you to do your best is very important. EMO has such a positive outlook on life, and is a wonderful human being. Not only does he teach us theater techniques, but he also teaches us how to be good people.
The Mentor (Eric Mark Olson)
What was your initial impression of Abby?
I thought Abby was intelligent, passionate and also shy and a little bit afraid of her own talent. There’s a particular thing about Abby that’s hard to explain—she’s soulful and wise, an old spirit, while at the same time she has a youthful innocence that makes her very interesting onstage.
How have you helped Abby?
She was the lead in my show last summer, A Pie-Rat’s Tale. I took a chance to push her to grow and shine. Often when kids get a lead role they think “I’m good, I’m cool”, but I saw Abby working to make everyone else around her look good. That’s the mark of a great artist. She was amazing [in the lead role] and I think she had a huge breakthrough; her parents even talked to me about how much she had grown.
What do you want Abby to take with her on the road ahead?
I want her to know and embrace that there’s no one way to achieve success in this biz and that it’s going to look different for everyone. We are individually responsible to define our own success, and we can’t let money, fame or jobs define that for us. Success lies in the journey, not the destination.
