LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Black bears are pretty normal for people to see around Lake Tahoe, but Whittell High School senior Ella Schweitzer met up with one recently during her senior photo shoot at Reno’s Montreux Country Club.
Ella, her mom Mishell Defelice, and photographer Kimberly Carano were going to be taking photos at various locations when they had their first stop at a home in Montreux. As they were preparing for the photo, a nearby fisherman let Mishell know there was a bear nearby. She walked slowly toward Ella and was going to point out the bear when he came around the corner of the home, just as the photo was being taken. The group wasn’t shocked that there was a bear since they’d been given a heads up he was in the vicinity, but surprised the four-legged friend decided to be in Ella’s photo.
Ella is headed to Pepperdine in the fall, where she’ll be on a political science pre-law track. At Whittell, she has a 5.0 weighted GPA, and as a freshman and junior, Ella was the top high jumper in the state.
