Plymouth’s Derek Onserio and Ellie Olmanson as pictured in the 2016 Prep Elite feature. Photos: Joel Schnell
We check in with our 2016 Prep Elites.
A lot can change in a decade, but our readership’s long-abiding interest in Plymouth Magazine’s annual high school senior showcase has continued to flourish over time. Formerly known as Prep Elite, our Senior Spotlight feature highlights students with drive, passion and big plans for the future. In light of the special place these stories hold in the heart of our community, we decided to revisit the Class of 2016 to see where some of those students are now. (Stay tuned for our August/September issue where we’ll introduce Plymouth’s Class of 2026.)
Ellie Olmanson
Wayzata High School
In 2016, Ellie Olmanson knew she wanted to branch out and make friends throughout the nation at an out-of-state school. At the University of Notre Dame, Olmanson says she had friends from coast to coast. “I joke that wherever I travel, I could run into someone I know,” she says. “I’ve run into people in Brunswick, Maine, at the [Chicago O’Hare International Airport], just all around and folks in every time zone of the U.S.” Olmanson says she appreciates how her collegiate exposure to different perspectives brought out her own. “You really start to understand what drives people, how they think and how they approach problems,” she says. “That exposure, I felt, is really helpful to my day-to-day life now.”
Ellie Olmanson at the Notre Dame North Quad on the day she graduated from the University of Notre Dame. Photos: OMG Photography
At Wayzata High School, Olmanson was on the varsity basketball and lacrosse teams. At Notre Dame, this passion found its outlet on intramural teams. “There was actually a semester where I participated in more intramural sports than anyone else on campus, which is something that I think I’m oddly proud of,” she says. “We made it to the championship for my basketball team, and we played in the same arena as the men’s and women’s teams do for their games; made it to the championship for [flag] football [and] played in the Notre Dame football stadium, which is so cool too.”
Olmanson lights a candle at the Notre Dame Grotto on graduation day.
Since graduating, Olmanson has leaned into the “business” side of her science business major, first as a senior associate and now an assistant vice president at Kaufman Hall in Denver. “I always thought that health care was really interesting,” Olmanson says. “I was drawn to the fact that that industry is so inevitably changing, and there’s so much room for improvement. I think that that broadness and opportunity there really drew me to it.”
Olmanson today, on the gondola in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with fiancé Brock Gorman. Photo: Mariah Braman
When she isn’t flying across the country for work, Olmanson says there’s plenty in the transplant community of Denver to keep her occupied. “I love how much there is to do actively; you can go for a walk around Sloan’s Lake. There’re so many cute shops to hop into, [and] there’s hiking and there’s skiing just a few hours away,” she says.
Derek Onserio
Providence Academy
When we interviewed Derek Onserio in August 2016, the then-Providence Academy senior knew he was going to attend college, but “where” was still up in the air. In March 2017, this question became even trickier to answer. Onserio had been accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. “It was just a complete moment of shock and awe for me,” he says.
Onserio had originally applied early-action to Yale University but was deferred over winter break. “It’s never the news you want to hear, but honestly, for me, it just invigorated me,” he says. Although he was later accepted to Yale, Onserio had already broadened his scope and found aspects that attracted him to each Ivy League school. Harvard University ultimately won out, partially because of the school community, partially because of Onserio’s interest in Harvard’s rigorous and competitive “comping” process to join student organizations. “I’ve always been someone that’s always just loved to be involved in a wide variety of things,” he says. “That was another thing that appealed to me.”
Derek Onserio at a vineyard in Italy while on a world tour with his a cappella group, The Harvard Krokodiloes.
At Providence Academy, Onserio says he was involved in most of the clubs on campus, “which is a credit to the school and its ability to offer students the flexibility and the opportunity to participate in multiple clubs,” he says. At Harvard, Onserio was similarly omnivorous in his interests. He furthered his abiding passion for music through joining The Harvard Krokodiloes, the oldest and most prestigious a cappella group on campus. “It was one of the experiences that I don’t think I’ll ever forget in my life,” Onserio says. “It’s a pretty intense group, pretty intense experience.”
Onserio today, exploring new neighborhoods with friends.
After graduation in 2021, Onserio went on to become a senior business analyst at McKinsey & Company in Chicago, making good on his prediction in 2016 that he would go into business. “I also did work for a year at the Obama Foundation; I did a fellowship through McKinsey,” Onserio says. From February 2024–25, Onserio provided financial strategy to the nonprofit, which oversees the creation of the Obama Presidential Center. “It was just a really cool and unique opportunity for me to blend some of my business interests with some of my other interests,” he says. More recently, Onserio is pivoting his career path to entrepreneurship with a primary focus on mortgage brokerage in the Plymouth area.
