February 2026: Maple Grove Police Department names Detective Missy Parker its first-ever Officer of the Year. MIssy is Osseo Senior High School's School Resource Officer, along with Osseo graduate Tony Mollen. Maple Grove Police is committed to excellence in service and is proud to recognize Missy Parker for her integrity, compassion and dedication to keeping the community safe. We sure do love you, Missy!

April 2026 Event: Indigenous Geographies are Out There! at Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) 

OSH Class of 2008's Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles (Niiyokamigaabaw: “Stands on Four Earths” in Ojibwemowin) is an Indigenous geographer of Ojibwe, Black, and Swedish descent and a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. He/they (Ojibwemowin: wiin) works at the intersections of Indigenous geographies and epistemologies, science and technology studies, and tribal cultural resource preservation and protection.

He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Professor with UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and Bemidji State University. He directs the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory and is affiliated with the EGESTA Lab (UBC), the Technoscience Research Unit (University of Toronto), and the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Hub (UCAR/Haskell Indian Nations University). He holds leadership roles in the American Association of Geographers and the Canadian Association of Geographers, serves on several editorial boards, and sits on the Board of Trustees of Leech Lake Tribal College.

March 2025: OSH graduate Emily Ford (Class of 2010) completed the Iditarod! Emily's biography states "I always had a dream of living in Alaska during the winter. As a kid, I thought that it was the most wild place where I could go on wild adventures. I put that dream on the back burner until I met my partner, Anna Hennessy. She hatched a plan to live in Alaska during the winter to prepare for Iditarod. We landed at Shameless Huskies Kennel in Willow and started to prepare for Anna’s Iditarod dream. I fell in love with the adventure of racing and spending countless hours with our dogs, but I still felt that I would be a handler for life. The Goose Bay 150 was a great introduction to racing, and as I spent more time on the runners, I realized that Iditarod would be the ultimate adventure I always wanted! I picked up two more qualifiers in 2024 (Copper Basin and Kobuk) to solidify my decision to attempt the Iditarod trail in 2025.

Following in the footsteps of the late North Pole expeditioner Matthew Henson, and Iditarod finishers Becca Moore and Newton Marshall, I want to continue to represent black people in cold places. With an understanding and drive to show that anyone can adventure and everyone deserves to discover the outdoors, regardless of race, gender identity, or upbringing, I continue to seek adventure and represent the underrepresented in outdoor spaces."  We are having a blast watching you compete, Emily! EmilyOnTrail

June 2024: Osseo graduate, Keenan Jones, highlights barbershop culture in new children's book released in January 2025. At Osseo High School, Jones found success as a basketball player. “We were the first number one ranked team to come out of the area,” he said, “And we were the area’s first state title team on the men's side.”  “I had a college professor who kind of encouraged me to write more,” Jones said. When he became an Hopkins Public Schools elementary school teacher in 2013, Jones followed that professor’s advice. “I'm reading children's books again, I'm writing the stories for my students and my passion for writing came back.” In 2019, Jones became a member of the Minnesota Children's Cabinet under Governor Tim Walz. “I felt like I was like an ambassador for the community, advocating for Black families, Black children and just children from across the state,” he said. “Being a part of those high level conversations, it was inspiring more than anything.” We are so proud of you, Keenan!

April 2024: Hennepin County Sheriff Deputy Dearest Welwolie helps rescue a resident from a home explosion/fire. Dearest is a member of the Minnesota National Guard, graduated from MSU-Mankato and a 2017 graduate of Osseo Senior High School. We are so proud of you, Dearest! Kare11 News Link

January 2024: University of Minnesota-Duluth doctoral student, Tanner Schumacher, is working with Rebase BioTech to bring potential cancer-fighting treatments from design to preclinical trials. We are very proud of you, Tanner!

February 2023: Stages Theatre Company (Hopkins, MN) announces the cast and creative team for ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, JR. which includes our very own Aniya Hollie! Aniya plays the part of Ti Moune, a young girl with a big heart, in this young-audience adaptation of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical. Way to go, Aniya!

May 2022: Josh Mattson recently received the Academic Excellence Award at Dunwoody College of Technology. Josh is a student in the Automotive Technology program whose goal is to become a master technician. Way to go, Josh!

March 2022: Recently named a "Best & Brightest" Business student for the Class of 2022 by Poets & Quants, Chike Okonkwo is an Osseo graduate studying Marketing, with a minor in Finance, at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Carlson School of Management. Way to go, Chike!