Kelloggsville — From the way senior Ivy Baker speaks about Kelloggsville High School and its community, you’d swear she’s been part of the district since kindergarten. In reality, this is Ivy’s first and only year at the school.
“I was like, this is my last year. I don’t want to be the closed-off person, because usually I am really shy,” Ivy said. “This is my senior year. I want to get out there. I want to do more things.”
Ivy is originally from the Grand Rapids area and attended Wyoming Public Schools until the sixth grade, when her family moved to Indiana, first to South Bend and later to Indianapolis.
A desire to be closer to family brought Ivy and her family back to the area. Ivy’s goal was to return to Wyoming Public Schools, but the family’s new home is in the Kelloggsville district.
‘If you’re involved you don’t have to know everyone, but being in a community where they do involve you, it feels heartwarming.’
— senior Ivy Baker
Ivy said she weighed her options, but her desire to finish her senior year at a public school won out and she chose to enroll at Kelloggsville.
“When I came to Kelloggsville, I was like, I get to experience all the new personalities, and I also get to express myself and embrace myself even more,” she said.
Visual arts teacher Kathryn Carl said Ivy is “fearless in risk taking,” with her ideas often rocketing to another dimension, which has led to creating artwork that comes from her heart and hard-earned skills.
“Ivy has demonstrated an enormous amount of leadership skills through many means,” Carl said. “On top of her performance, Ivy remains teachable and aware of opportunities that open doors for her to take initiative, help out or contribute (to) her fluid creativity. I appreciate Ivy; having her as a student has not only brought me joy but has also taught me things about myself.”
Making Those Connections
Ivy admitted she was worried about feeling lonely, as she didn’t know anyone at the school and wasn’t sure how people would react to her bold and colorful fashion style.
“People just accept me,” Ivy said. “I thought going to a public school would be harder than a charter school, because everyone (at a charter school), they’re wearing the same thing. But here, I’m just a normal girl.”
A connection at her job at the cookie shop, Crumbl, helped her make friends, and soon she was connecting with students and staff. One such person is teacher Susan Faulk, the adviser for the class of 2025.
Ivy said she knew she wanted to get involved in the school, so she reached out to Faulk, who agreed to have Ivy join the 2025 class representatives.
“Her enthusiasm was instantly obvious,” Faulk said, adding that Ivy jumped right in to help raise money for the senior night and senior picnic by making and selling crocheted stars and bracelets during the fall Kelloggsville Community Celebration.
Ivy also spent many hours leading the design of the class float for homecoming, Faulk said.
“What I most enjoyed about Ivy (during that project) was that she involved others.” Faulk said. “When the other class representatives were available, she did a great job of allowing them to help. She listened to their ideas and allowed them to choose what parts of the float they wanted to work on. She had a vision for the float, helped the other class advisers to catch the vision and produced a winning float.”
Ivy’s passion for helping people can be seen daily, Faulk said, as she connects with younger students, talking to them about how to make better life choices.
Involvement Is Key
What impresses Ivy about Kelloggsville are the number of clubs and opportunities in which to be involved, she said, noting she has enjoyed the lunch activities of the German Club hosting an Oktoberfest and the Asian Club sharing about its culture.
“We also have student news, which is awesome,” she said. “Our news, it’s every day. … it just talks about everything that’s going on with the school, and it is a really good way for the students to get involved, interact with the school and know everything that’s gonna happen.”
All of which makes her feel connected to the school and her community, she said.
“I had a student take the same driving course I was taking, and he was like ‘You go to Kelloggsville,’” she said. “Things like that make me really happy.
“I don’t know his name, but we know each other because we’ve seen each other, and it’s like we’re friends, but we’re not really friends because (we) don’t know each other, but we’re just in the same community, and that’s what makes us a whole thing.”
Outside school, Ivy is an entrepreneur. There’s her crochet business, Purations.co, and a nail business, Miopio.nails. After high school she plans to pursue a degree in business administration and accounting to expand her ventures.
Also, because she enjoys helping people, she is a member of the Pearls of Promise Foundation, a philanthropic organization that promotes educational improvements in the Metro Detroit area.
With all that she has done, her advice to her peers — whether spending a year or four in any high school — is to be involved.
“Don’t be scared to be yourself, either, because at the end of the day you only have you. And if you’re in a school and you’re not really interactive, it can be really lonely,” she said. “So if you’re involved, you don’t have to know everyone, but being in a community where they do involve you, it feels heartwarming.”
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