May 2024

George Ayoub

Class of 1968
Alumni Liaison

Volume 9 | Number 3

Welcome to Rise, the voice of Grand Island Senior High alumni and friends. We show up every other month in over 9,000 in-boxes bringing you news, views, and memories of GISH. Rise is a publication of the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation.

This is Issue #3 of our ninth year of publishing the only consistent connection for alumni and friends of Grand Island Senior High. That makes this iteration 51 of Rise. We are happy you’re a subscriber and hope you continue to read the comings and goings of Islander alums across the globe.

Here’s some of what you will find inside this issue: “At the Top'' checks in on the progress of Senior High now as a cell phone free zone. While many high schools still wrestle with what to do about cell phone use on campus, in January, GISH decided it would eliminate them during the school day.

In her “Making Your Mark” piece, Grand Island Public Schools Foundation Executive Director, Kari Hooker-Leep asks members of the Class of 2024 what their legacies will be. On that same subject, our intrepid student correspondent, Senior Avery Rogers, asks some of her classmates what graduation will mean to them as they prepare to move smartly into the worlds of work, military service, college, or whatever the next chapter holds for them.

Mike Monk's “Distant Mirror” writes about the years he was a minority owner of the Major League Baseball San Diego Padres. Wandering Writer Sarah Kuta writes about the 80th anniversary of D-Day and a trip she took there last year.

We have one Milestone this issue, a former Rise columnist is named NCPA High School Teacher of the Year. As usual, in our In Memoriam we have a list of Islanders who have passed, in Reunions we have class gatherings and other class get-togethers, and in Class Notes we have the lives and times of Islanders everywhere.

Stay in touch, Islanders. And remember: Keep pushing on.