Stillwater Schools To Honor 4 ‘Distinguished’ Alumni Next Month

STILLWATER, MN — The Stillwater Area Public Schools system is set to honor four of its former pupils as “Distinguished Alumni” in June.

They are due to be “honored for distinction” after graduating from Stillwater Area High School at the district’s “Distinguished Alumni” award ceremony, scheduled to start at 6 p.m. June 3 at the Lake Elmo Inn Event Center.

Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins will be honored next month alongside Dr. Patrick Hicks, an author, speaker, radio host and professor; Danielle Mkali, a community organizer and senior director for Nexus Community Partners; and Edward Simonet, who served for almost a half-century as a criminal defense attorney, public defender and examiner of titles, according to a release.

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Diggins, who graduated in 2010, has three Olympic medals, with one of each color. She and teammate Kikkan Randall shocked skiing fans as they won gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the women's team cross-country sprint.

Diggins, 30, won bronze in the freestyle sprint and silver in the 30-kilometer freestyle cross-country race at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She was the first American cross-country skier to win more than one medal at an Olympics.

Since graduating from Stillwater Area High School in 1988, Patrick Hicks has written more than 10 books and 200 essays, short stories, poems and other pieces that have been published in “some of the best literary and academic journals in the world,” the district said in the release.

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Hicks also hosts “Poetry from Studio 47,” a popular radio show that airs on National Public Radio affiliates. He has also been nominated for two Emmy awards. Hicks is the writer-in-residence at Augustana University.

Danielle Mkali has “dedicated her career to building community cooperatives to create wealth-building opportunities with Black people” since graduating in 1996, according to the district.

She is a senior director for Nexus Community Partners, where she leads a trust fund that redistributes $50 million to Black communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, the release states.

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Mkali co-founded and led the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship, which connects people with “the rich history of cooperative economics in the Black community” and provides technical training and support for “emerging cooperative business ideas,” according to the district.

She also helped launch KRSM, a low-power FM radio station in south Minneapolis that airs “voices, stories and cultures (that) are often underrepresented or erased in traditional media,” the release states.

Edward Simonet is set to be honored by the Stillwater Area Public Schools system 55 years after he graduated from high school.

Simonet, a member of the Class of 1967, was “a fixture of Washington County courtrooms for more than 47 years” as a criminal defense attorney, public defender and examiner of titles, the district said in the release.

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Simonet “was steadfast in his efforts for his clients and the righteousness of their cause, and worked tirelessly to represent clients with a great deal of compassion, kindness, care and consideration,” the district said.

He was actively involved in the Washington County Veterans Court and often helped homeless veterans through Stand Down events, the release states.

The annual Distinguished Alumni Banquet is sponsored by The Partnership Plan, nonprofit educational fund for Stillwater schools.

The Partnership Plan said it has given out more than $6.4 million in grants to fund learning and other experiences for 27,000 students since its founding in 1989.

The organization said it has awarded just under $47,000 in grants for Stillwater Area Public Schools classrooms during the 2021-22 school year. Those grants funded an archeology class, underwater robotics club, books, raincoats, birdhouses and more.

Teachers and staff in the district can apply for grants of up to $6,000 from The Partnership Plan.

The organization also recently honored nine teachers and staff members within the Stillwater Area Public Schools system with a Partnership Award and a $1,000 grant for each.

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