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Albert Lea High School on Friday held its annual ceremony inducting students and faculty into the school’s Wall of Inspiration. This year, 10 people were recognized.

Five students were inducted into the Wall of Inspiration this year. They are Kaiden Baldwin, Bree Weilage, Lauren Raleigh, Jackson “the Dresch” Drescher and Kuol Dual.

Five Albert Lea school staff members also received the honor. They were paraprofessionals Tina Thrond and Isaiah Peterson, math teacher Jasmine Hansen, school counselor Jess Hatland and social studies teacher Brittany Utzka.

Family, friends, classmates and colleagues were invited to the ceremony to celebrate and cheer on the inductees.

The Wall of Inspiration was started by Brian and Kathleen Kuphal in honor of their son Josh Kuphal, an ALHS graduate who passed away in 2002. Since its start in 2004, the Wall of Inspiration has recognized almost 200 people, commemorating their accomplishments in tiles decorated by inductees and displayed on the wall at the high school.

Jim Haney, social studies teacher and Wall of Inspiration Committee member, organized and hosted the event along with Utzka. During the later part of the ceremony, Utzka gave her co-hosting duties to Haney so she herself could be a recipient of the recognition.

The 2025 Wall of Inspiration inductees were first recognized individually. Haney and Utzka read portions of the recipients’ nomination letters, which explained why the person was selected. They also listed a few of each recipient’s hobbies and future plans if they were students. The honoree then got to be recognized and shake hands with the Wall of Inspiration Committee members and the Kuphal family.

Following the presentation there was a short video in which each inductee explained why they decided to decorate their tile the way they did. Each person had a unique story and reason for their creative choices.

For example, Baldwin followed the suit of many past wall inductees by decorating his tile with things that represented his Christian faith.

Raleigh decorated her tile with different plants many people consider weeds, along with the quote “learn to love the weeds.”

“People always say … stop and smell the roses, and sometimes there’s not a rose around so you have to, you know, make do with what you’ve got,” Raleigh said.

Trond decorated her tile with the T-shirt design used for a benefit held after she received a cancer diagnosis in May.

Other decorations included family photos, pictures or symbols representing cultural heritage, sports teams or logos and inspirational quotes or song lyrics that were meaningful for the honoree.

All who were selected for the 2025 Wall of Inspiration thanked the Wall of Inspiration Committee members for considering their nomination letters and selecting them for the recognition.