Every high school senior takes a different path to graduation.

For some, adjusting to life as freshmen in a new social setting comes easy and leads to four years of smooth transition to the next chapter of their lives.

For others, challenges in academic life slow the process and make four years seem much longer.

There are hundreds of stories among the Oakland County students named as Top Scholars of the 2024-2054 graduating class.

Two students who took opposite paths to earning a diploma are among those stories.

The electrician

DeAngelo Pierfelice wrapped up his senior year at Durant High School in Waterford by taking freshman Algebra as one of his courses.

He did not take the typical path to graduation, but will earn his diploma in four years just like the majority of students who have walked across a stage this spring.

Pierfelice began his high school career at Chippewa Valley High School in Macomb County. He struggled in all of his classes. During his sophomore year his mother, Particia Dubley-Pierfelice, died.

He moved in with his father, Dominic, an automotive machine operator, and started taking classes at Waterford Kettering High School.

His grades did not improve during the second half of his sophomore year and junior year at Kettering.

“His grades were all over the place when he came here,” said Anne Kruse, principal at Durant.

“My mom passing away took a big toll on me and I did not feel like doing much,” Pierfelice admitted. “School was just hard for me and I was failing a lot of my classes and I was really not focused.”

He moved to Durant for his senior year.

The school specializes in providing credit recovery options for students through accelerated 10-week terms. The majority of students are juniors and seniors looking to make up credits for failed classes in a setting with smaller class sizes and more personalized learning. Students are allowed to take classes in any order they choose.

“Somewhere along their educational route they become credit deficient and they need to make it up at an accelerated rate,” Kruse said of the students attending Durant. “So kids here have to work twice as hard and twice as fast to cover the same material as kids at Mott and Kettering (high schools).”

Pierfelice knew what it would take to graduate on time, if at all, and he began putting in the work.

“My ultimate mission was graduating and making sure I got enough credits to get that done and making sure I can find a career for myself after high school,” Pierfelice said.

Kruse saw the changes immediately.

“When he came to Durant, he just started to blossom,” she said. “You could see his body language and demeanor change. He started getting all A’s and he became an honor roll student.”

“When I came to Durant, the teachers seemed like they cared more about me and focused on what I needed to do,” Pierfelice said. “We are a family here and we all have a connection with each other.”

He achieved his goals of finishing high school and choosing a career. In the fall, Pierfelice will be heading to Oakland Community College and wants to be an electrician.

“When he came here in September he had a plan to graduate and did not know what he was going to do,” said Kruse. “Now he has a career plan, some money through Michigan Works! to get started and a scholarship to OCC.”

Michigan Works! assists people with job support, training and services to find employment and obtain needed credentials. They work with school districts, colleges and community colleges throughout the state.

“It feels great knowing I put in the work and the effort and now I am graduating and going to college this fall,” said Pierfelice. “Durant is a place to get an education, but it is also like a second home to me now.”

Pierfelice is one of 67 students graduating from Durant this year.

The explorer

To say that Benjamin Guettler leads a busy life would be an understatement. He will graduate from Bloomfield Hills High School this year with a 4.45 grade point average, was a three-sport athlete for four years and president of Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA). He plays piano, was a member of the student advisory council and became an Eagle Scout as a member of Scouting America.

He runs an auto detailing business, which he classifies as a “summer venture,” and is a DJ playing music at gatherings.

But the line that jumps off his resume is the title of co-founder and chief sales officer for JointCoach, described as a “medical startup replacing traditional triage with Artificial Intelligence (AI), improving access to healthcare.”

A pilot program is up and running and working with local surgical groups.

Guettler explained how it works.

“The platform will not give a diagnosis, but a triage and then whether you need to be set up with a doctor or not, it tells you. Then it actually integrates with surgical systems and hooks up directly to their scheduling,” Guettler said. “If somebody needs an appointment, they will talk to the AI, the AI schedules it and on the surgeon’s end they will see a new appointment. We are able to assess these conditions with a lot of accuracy. It is literally for anyone.”

A person can get in front of their computer camera and the platform tracks range of motion, sees where joints are not doing their best and also allows you to interact with an AI chatbot to answer questions. It can then connect the patient with the nearest doctor, who receives notification of an appointment.

Guettler is teamed with orthopedic surgeon Blaine Warkentine, whom he met at a medical conference, to create the platform with a focus on musculoskeletal complaints.

“We both had a passion for AI and he introduced the idea of replacing triage,” said Guettler.

They were able to secure $30,000 in seed funding dedicated to development and marketing as they modify the platform and possibly branch out to other areas of medicine.

“We have our prototypes and our initial product and we are just going to keep iterating that and making it better and then expanding,” said Guettler.

His father, Joseph, is a surgeon and described how his son could have such a broad variety of interests for a teenager.

“He is a unique little cat. He is an explorer at heart,” said Joseph. “He said he wants to take some time off this summer and go explore Europe and see the sights. His mind is always exploring something.”

“He has always loved diving into something and finding out how it works,” said his mother Debbie, a nurse. “He has found this niche (JointCoach) that he enjoys working in and finding people that he can connect with and has similar goals with.”

Being able to explore is one of the reasons he chose to go to Duke University in the fall.

He said the university is more suited to participating in programs and activities outside his major, which in Benjamin’s case will be economics.

“I like exploring other things outside of academia and there is more of a social scene there, so I think it is going to be the right fit for me. I fell in love with Duke early on,” said Guettler. “I have an interest in philosophy, which is obviously outside of the business realm, but it is something I would be interested in and I would be able to pursue something like that while I’m there.”

Guettler said he has spent part of his senior year at Bloomfield Hills giving advice and trying to mentor other students in all aspects of high school life.

“I love giving back and setting these kids up so they can have the same opportunities that I had, but also helping them not make the same mistakes I did and I want them to ultimately do better than I could do,” he said. “I really want to see people do better than I did.”

“He has been a great leader and an instigator in helping his sister and her friends get involved in a variety of things at school,” said Debbie. “He has done a good job of stopping sometimes and thinking things through, even though he is constantly moving. It does your heart good knowing he has all the tools.”