Meet the Scholars

Meet The Scholars

A genealogy test one summer revealed Norwegian roots, and Claire Baldridge has been weaving them into an already rich life ever since. At Sherwood High School she ran the Society of Women in Engineering, stage-managed theater productions, and won the Oregon State Constitutional Law Competition. Now studying mechanical engineering at Oregon State — with a minor in photography and an eye toward political science — she has set her sights on becoming a Disney Imagineer, designing theme park environments that combine engineering, storytelling, and cultural meaning.

Raymond Baurer grew up steeped in Norwegian heritage — krumkake in his grandmother's kitchen, stories passed down through baking. He is graduating this spring as class valedictorian, having simultaneously completed his Associate of Arts degree at Clackamas Community College, maintaining a 4.0 at both institutions. He is the first in his family to attend a four-year college. His goal is forensic science — analyzing evidence at crime scenes and in labs to ensure the right people are prosecuted, applying science at the molecular level to real-world questions of justice.

The warm smell of krumkake in her grandmother's kitchen is where Sarah DeRoos's Norwegian heritage lives most fully. She is the granddaughter of a Minnesota farm girl, and she knows her heritage less through documents than through the act of making something together — rolling dough, asking questions, sharing with a neighbor who stops by. Now a Health Science student at Point Loma Nazarene University, she is pursuing nursing with a focus on labor and delivery, drawn to the profound vulnerability of that particular moment in people's lives.

Tsion Ermias came to Norse mythology not through ancestry but through curiosity — and found unexpected common ground between Ethiopian and Nordic oral traditions, both using storytelling to carry wisdom across generations. That instinct to find connection across difference has defined her high school years at the International School of Beaverton, where she completed the full IB diploma, served as NHS president, and earned a Safe Routes to School micro-grant for pedestrian safety improvements she championed after years of walking dark, unprotected streets with her older sister. She plans to become a civil rights attorney.

Kelby Evenson is the sixth generation of her family to live in Clatskanie, Oregon, where the Evensons have operated a logging company since Norwegian immigrants first put down roots in the late 1800s. She keeps that history alive in concrete ways: leading her 4-H club, raising and selling goats and lambs at the county fair, teaching swim lessons, and performing in six high school theater productions. She plans to study speech-language pathology with a focus on pediatrics

Isaiah Fagerberg's Norwegian roots run deep on both sides, and his life in Portland's Scandinavian community has been full — Scan Fair, the Torsk dinner, two older sisters who served on the Lucia Court, and his grandfather, Kirk Beiningen – a past president of Grieg Lodge. He is studying mechanical engineering at George Fox University, where he also sings in the choir, draws geometric Norse knots, and submits Lego designs to the company for potential production. His dream is product design — where engineering meets art, to make everyday objects beautiful — and eventually, to follow his roots back to Norway.

Every Christmas morning, Jack Fairman's family makes Norwegian pancakes — thin, crepe-like, carrying what he describes as his entire heritage wrapped in a single sheet. Jack is an Eagle Scout whose service project put 4,000 children's books into the hands of Portland kids in need. He is also a prolific writer — his first novel, The Shadow Pride, earned a Scholastic Honorable Mention, and a one-act play he wrote is currently in production at his school. In the theater program he has acted in 15 productions and crewed 5 more. He founded Sweet Reads, a club where members read books and share desserts, and became the first high school intern ever hired at his public library. He plans to study English and work in journalism.

Parker Humbird carries Norwegian and Swedish-Finn heritage on both sides, and he keeps it alive in specific, hands-on ways — playing Kubb with his grandfather using pieces they made together, learning to pickle and smoke and can fish the way his family has for generations. He is graduating at the top of his class at St. Helens High School with a 4.0 GPA, taking AP Precalculus, College Calculus, and Computer Science while serving as a senior leader on the baseball team. He plans to study computer science.

Kate Jones has stood inside Borgund stave church — built in 1180 — learned about the Shetland Bus from the museum in Tælavåg, made lefse, worn a bunad, and participated in Grieg Lodge events since she was a child. Back home in Washington, she captains her school's math team, takes college-level courses in astrophysics and engineering physics, and taught herself to ski. She draws her original characters and has been writing stories since she was small. Her ultimate goal is to become an astronaut — which her school advisor found compelling enough to nominate her for the region's STEM Rising Star award.

Every St. Lucia Eve, Anna Kappler practiced carrying a wreath of candles on her head, preparing to serve saffron buns to her family the next morning while her grandmother told stories of their Swedish great-great-grandfather. Those rituals became, as Anna describes them, how her family passed down history. At Oregon Episcopal School she has carried that same sense of purpose into theater, into the Hillsboro Youth Advisory Council, and into an internship with State Senator Janeen Sollman. She plans to dual major in Integrated Sciences and Public Policy — working at the place where science informs governance.

Zoë Lodahl found her Norwegian heritage not through family tradition but through a young adult novel — Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase series — which sent her to the Eddas, the ancient Norse texts that are the foundation of Norse mythology, to Norwegian history, and eventually to Oslo and Bergen with her mother. She is now in her second year of Norwegian at Portland State University, tracing ancestors from Jylland and Vesterålen, and hopes to attend the University of Oslo's International Summer School this summer. She is pursuing a BFA in Art Practice, plays guitar, ukulele, and violin, and has her eye on the Hardanger fiddle.

Ava Meier has been performing piano since kindergarten, and for each of the past five years has entered the National Federation of Music Clubs competition and earned the highest possible ranking. That same discipline shows up everywhere in her life — in four years of weekly volunteering in her church's children's ministry, in leading HOSA, her school's health careers student organization, and in her annual attendance at Norse Hall's Lutefisk Dinner and the Santa Lucia celebration. She is heading to George Fox University to study nursing, following her grandmother and mother into the profession.

December in Olivia Palmer's kitchen means flour on the counters, cardamom in the air, and her family gathered around the krumkake iron — a tradition her great-grandmother carried over from Norway. Olivia is a full IB student at Cleveland High School, a cross-country team captain, and a Key Club volunteer at over 30 events a year. In her own kitchen, she has been experimenting with salt-based vegetable preservation, studying the compounds in beets that naturally extend shelf life. It’s hands-on food science that connects directly to her goal of developing affordable, nutrient-dense food for families on SNAP benefits.

Delphina Seeger is both a serious artist and a serious scientist, and she has spent high school figuring out how those two things belong together. Last year's AP Studio Art portfolio featured local species — a blue heron that won a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, alongside coyotes, otters, and deer. This year she has turned to oil paintings of endangered animals. She is ranked first in her class at Ida B. Wells, edits the yearbook, spends weekends birding at parks and wildlife preserves, and designs social media graphics for Positive Charge, a student club that organizes community service projects across Portland. She plans to study biology and scientific illustration — using her art to help people understand what is at stake in the natural world.

Kazmer Zawadzki came to Norwegian culture through friendship — welcomed into a close friend's Norwegian family, he made lussekatter, joined a St. Lucia procession carrying candles, and began learning Norwegian. At Grant High School he is Student Body President, captain of two athletic teams, and co-founder of ReQuip Soccer, a certified nonprofit that has redistributed over 2,000 pieces of sports gear to youth in need. He earned a 5 on both the AP Chemistry and AP Physics 1 exams — the latter after teaching himself the course independently when he was advised against taking it. He is pursuing a career in medicine.