Glad to be a grad Eight Winnipeg teens leave high school with hopes, dreams and an uncertain, AI-flavoured future By: Maggie Macintosh and Zoe Pierce Posted: 3:15 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 3, 2026

Same as the gen-Zers who came before them, this year’s Grade 12 graduates were raised online and offline.

What sets the Class of 2026 apart is how it has been forced to reckon with the post-pandemic panic about student screen time.

In middle school, these students were told they could socialize only on digital playgrounds. After COVID-19 restrictions eased, a school cellphone ban was brought in. On their way out, they were assured future Manitoba children wouldn’t be able to access the same social media and artificial intelligence-powered chatbots they grew up with.

This group, born into an era of tech optimism, is the first to have had access to AI chatbots in all four years of high school.

Now freshly minted graduates, they are grappling with AI-related uncertainty, as well as the stressors that have long preceded it, including costly post-secondary tuition and searching for jobs.

The Free Press spoke to recent grads about their most memorable moments.

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Talon Phrakonekham, St. John’s High School

Dystopian as it sounds, Talon Phrakonekham said he takes “a lot of pride” in the fact he never used a robot to replace first-hand research or complete an assignment.

“I feel good about it. I feel like I’ve learned a lot over high school. I think, overall, I am smarter because of (my choices),” Phrakonekham said.

There was no shortage of opportunities to take shortcuts, courtesy of evolving tech. The now-17-year-old had just started ninth grade when OpenAI released a chatbot that would transform how many of his classmates did their homework. As far as he is concerned, ChatGPT and tools like it wreaked havoc on his North End high school.

The technology has created distrust, reduced creativity and reinforced bad habits, because students can procrastinate and churn out last-minute AI-generated essays, he said.

“I really like my teachers, so I feel sympathy for them,” he said, noting their workloads increased as part of a crackdown on AI-related plagiarism.

”I feel bad for them.”

Teachers issued warnings and used proofreaders to catch robotic language during the tail end of his time at St. John’s.

“I feel like I’ve learned a lot over high school. I think, overall, I am smarter because of (my choices).”

He steered clear, citing his enjoyment of learning new things and wanting to be ready for university.

His two favourite courses at St. John’s were musical theatre — he was the male lead in the school’s latest production — and computer science, which is where he was headed before the AI boom disrupted the coding sector.

He’s since decided to keep his options open by enrolling in the University of Manitoba’s flexible first-year pathway program, University 1.

His first day of class is on his 18th birthday.

He noted that, for many students, grades 11 and 12 and the period that follows graduation can be stressful.

He said he’s blessed to be surrounded by a big family filled with wise relatives who’ve often assured him he has plenty of time to decide what he wants to do.

His advice to other teens is to reduce the pressure they put on themselves and prioritize original thinking over using ChatGPT.

Uloma and Nmesoma Isinguzo, Vincent Massey Collegiate

Uloma and Nmesoma Isinguzo have always shared genes, extracurriculars and a commute to and from class.

While their scenery is about to change, the twins aren’t ready to split up just yet. They’re going to be side by side at the University of British Columbia in the fall.

“It’s very fun, like having your best friend everywhere,” Nmesoma said.

The sisters are starting their respective science studies on the UBC Okanagan campus in Kelowna. They both want to specialize in microbiology or molecular and medical biology, with long-term plans to attend medical school.

Uloma will also suit up for the university’s women’s basketball team.

During high school, the sisters immersed themselves in student life. Both held leadership roles with their Black Students Union — Nmesoma as president and Uloma as vice-president — while also mentoring younger students. They advocated through Key Club, a student-led organization dedicated to volunteering and fundraising for social issues and participated in athletics.

“I’m really proud of myself and Nmesoma, that we stick it out,” Uloma said. “Even with all the things we’ve gone through in our personal lives, in our academic lives, in our athletic lives, we made a name for ourselves.”

While they’re looking forward to university, both said leaving home comes with uncertainty.

Finding work has already proven challenging. The sisters, who are spending the summer working at Princess Auto Stadium doing pedestrian control, said searching for additional employment has been discouraging, as employers often don’t respond to applications.

“I feel a little bit unprepared, financially,” Uloma said. “Like how I’m gonna balance being a full-time U-sports student while also trying to balance my life.”

Throughout it all, the sisters said they plan to stay grounded in their faith and family.

“It’s very hard to find a constant nowadays,” Nmesoma said. “Friends come and go, people come and go, opportunities come and go, but family and faith is something that is constant, something that you can rely on.”

Adia Branconnier, Transcona Collegiate

Grad season is often marked by motivational speeches and smiling portraits.

Adia Branconnier is using this summer as a time of reflection, to consider all the unknowns ahead.

“The state of the world is in a really scary place right now, and I feel like there’s sort of a pervasive hopelessness among gen Z,” said Branconnier, who uses they/them pronouns.

From the rising cost of living to a competitive job market, young people are stepping into adulthood at a difficult time, they said.

“It feels like older generations are stirring all of this up (war and climate change) and wrecking things, and now we’re getting thrown into it with zero access to non-biased information so we can form our own opinions,” they said.

“People don’t take us seriously when we have opinions about things because we’re just known as the ‘keyboard generation.’”

While noting it can be difficult to remain hopeful, Branconnier said it’s exciting to think about the future.

Teaching is a key part of the plan going forward; working with young students who have “an innocence that is so inspiring.”

Branconnier will begin an integrated arts and education program at the University of Winnipeg, and plans to major in English and minor in theatre.

The teen wrote, produced, sound-designed and starred in an original play that was performed at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in 2025.

“I’m going to have so much more time to write,” Branconnier said. “I already have opportunities lined up to be doing theatre, actively. Winnipeg is a really good city for that.”

Branconnier is working over the summer as a camp counsellor with the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.

Leah Hoeppner, Collège Churchill High School

Be it on the stage or softball diamond, Leah Hoeppner wanted to be in the play.

The 18-year-old’s final year of high school was — not unlike the years leading up to it — marked by musical rehearsals and training sessions with teammates.

“You have to be very committed to both of those things to succeed in them,” she said. “There’s actually more crossover than you think.”

Hoeppner said her extracurriculars, the highlights of her high school years, required her to be dedicated, adaptable and willing to work with others towards a shared goal.

She was among a handful of student athletes from Churchill’s Softball Academy who helped mount their Riverview school’s spring musical, Frozen.

In her latest role as ice princess Elsa, she performed the musical’s hit song, Let It Go. “I love a good power ballad,” the dancer, choir member and aspiring Broadway star said.

On the field, she played shortstop and third base throughout her Grade 12 season — her fourth and final one as a Churchill Bulldog.

She and 10 others made up the first graduating class of the program that launched in partnership with Softball Manitoba in September 2022 to give teens the option to regularly train in their sport and obtain a phys-ed credit in the process.

Starting at 8 a.m. on weekdays, the students had to be ready for weightlifting, batting practice or other activities, either at Churchill or the Sport for Life Centre downtown.

While noting it was difficult to wake up in the winter months when it was dark outside, Hoeppner said the training — in addition to her commitments with the Smitty’s Terminators AAA team — made her a more disciplined student.

“It was always worth it,” she said.

Hoeppner found a way to squeeze all of her hobbies into her schedule and, on occasion, combine them; she has sung the national anthem at Winnipeg Goldeyes, Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose games.

Her next stage will, if all goes according to plan, involve a lot more stage time.

She is part of the ensemble and an understudy of a supporting character in Rainbow Stage’s upcoming production of Legally Blonde. Following the late-summer run, she is moving to Oakville, Ont., to study music theatre performance and play softball at Sheridan College.

The school, which has an internationally renowned reputation for its four-year degree program, came out on top of her pros and cons list when she was deciding where to attend post-secondary.

The campus is about a 30-minute drive from the Toronto Blue Jays home base — a major selling point for an athlete who said she, the daughter and granddaughter of baseball players, was “born into” fandom.

Mahina Krause, Westwood Collegiate

“Have you moved the needle?”

It’s a question — and a family motto — that Mahina Krause said she strives to live by to make the world a better place than it was yesterday.

During her studies in Westwood, Krause advocated for recycling bins to be installed beside community mailboxes in her neighbourhood. She placed second in a provincial watershed competition for a project examining the environmental impact of AI data centres.

“I’ve always had a love for the animals and the environment,” said Krause, who has volunteered at Assiniboine Park Zoo during her summers as part of its pilot conservation outreach and leadership team.

She is set to begin an honours neuroscience degree at the University of Winnipeg in the fall.

“It was a very rocky road getting to this conclusion,” Krause said. “I kind of went through high school struggling to pick a path. Everyone always told me that I had so much time, but in the end it was recently, like a couple of months ago, that I finally decided that this is the stream that I wanted to go into.”

She said the program’s mix of biology and psychology appealed to her, along with its potential for stable employment amid a cost-of-living crisis.

“(My mom’s) been concerned about the future for me. I feel she’s definitely been pushing for me to become a doctor now, as costs are rising, so it’s definitely affected what I chose for education,” she said.

Krause has worked at a Smitty’s restaurant as a host and server since she was 15, but said it took about a year to find a second job as a banquet server at Breezy Bend Country Club.

Looking ahead, she said the biggest challenge facing her generation will be artificial intelligence.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty with that,” she said. “People are wondering, like, is it taking jobs? There’s a lot to be said about the brain and dependence on this tool. The data centres will also probably be draining a lot of resources.”

Despite her concerns, Krause said she plans to take her degree as it comes while staying grounded in her family’s motto.

“I hope that I continue to live by that, just moving the needle a little bit every day,” she said.

Sydney Stibbard, RINK Hockey Academy

No. 26 has long been Sydney Stibbard’s lucky number.

Little did she know when she picked it — then a recreational hockey player who’d only just become a teen — how fitting it would be for her senior year.

Donning a jersey that matched her membership to the Class of 2026, she earned multiple personal records in the lead-up to her convocation from RINK Hockey Academy.

During her first regular season in the program, she scored 12 goals and made 24 assists. Those totals were 16 and 39 this year.

She spent her mornings in class at Shaftesbury High School in Tuxedo. Her afternoons were filled with on- and off-ice training in Oak Bluff.

The 17-year-old described the transformation in her skating abilities between enrolling in the program in Grade 10 and graduation as “unbelievable.”

A franchise in the Canadian Sports School Hockey League, the RINK attracts students from across the continent. Its teams travel to compete with other high school teams in Alberta and B.C.

As assistant captain this year, Stibbard co-led her team to securing fourth place in the playoffs. There were 14 teams in the western conference.

“It taught me how to be more responsible. You don’t have your parents there to hold your hand on the road,” she said about what she learned from her non-traditional high school experience.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League, established in 2024, has signed four alumnae from the national high school league for its upcoming season.

“It’s a great league and it’s growing the game so much,” she said, adding it’s “awesome” that young girls can regularly watch women play competitive hockey on television.

The Olympics provided a rare opportunity to watch elite female players on TV when she was growing up in Winnipeg.

She was able to attend the sold-out PWHL Takeover Tour neutral-site stop at Canada Life Centre.

Since then she’s been focused on getting ready for her freshman season with the Dalhousie University Tigers. She secured a scholarship to study business and play hockey in Halifax.

“Their hockey team’s all right, but it’ll get better,” she said, followed by a chuckle. “I’m hoping to make a big impact when I get there.”

Ikroop Sohi, Kildonan East Collegiate

It may not be a typical resumé line, but the friendships Ikroop Sohi has built are what she said she’s most proud of, looking back on the past few years.

“In times where you feel lonely or you’re struggling with school, your friends are the people that support you the most, and can help you get out of those feelings,” Sohi said.

The 17-year-old was involved in her school’s leadership team and volunteering at Concordia Child Care.

As she braces for the next phase, Sohi described having mixed emotions about enrolling at the University of Manitoba.

“I feel relaxed that I don’t have to deal with a bunch of classes and a heavy schedule anymore, but at the same time, knowing that I have to attend university in the fall makes me nervous; it’s a little intimidating,” she said, noting the cost of tuition is one of her biggest concerns about the future.

She wants to pursue nursing after her initial year in U1.

“My mom’s in health care, and I’ve just been inspired to join that field and help people as much as I can in my community,” she said.

She said the makeup of her graduating class has given her a lot of hope.

“We’re such a diverse class, and we have different backgrounds and different perspectives,” she said.

“But when it comes to it, we really can come together, and we can help each other out and celebrate one another, and I think that is very special.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca