Senior honored for character, service

SARAH COLSON OBERLIN HIGH SCHOOL

Each month the Oberlin Rotary Club honors select students as “Senior of the Month.” These young people are recognized for their good character and positive attitude. They have contributed their time and energy to helping the school and community and are excellent role models. The Oberlin Rotary Club will donate $25.00 to a charity or project of the student’s choosing in their name.

The Oberlin High School senior honored for the month of February is Nathaniel Malakar.

Malakar has played varsity soccer throughout his Oberlin High School career. He has also played saxophone in the school band since 7th grade. For his International Baccalaureate (IB) personal project he formed a small ensemble with other sophomore friends. Despite the pandemic shut down, they were successful in recording three songs, though the logistics were very tricky. Malakar has also studied saxophone with Will Tabar at the Community Music School. He served as Class Treasurer for his junior and senior years, helping to organize the prom. He quickly learned that serving as a class officer involved serving the entire school population. He was involved with several fundraising projects to benefit the school. He is also active in the OHS ski club.

Outside of school, Malakar has worked in the Kendal at Oberlin dining room for the past two years. He has enjoyed working at Kendal and interacting with the residents. He credits this experience with making him more thoughtful about the needs of others and more consciously aware of wanting to help others.

During the pandemic shut down, and at his father’s urging, he joined with Zooniverse to contribute to a couple of online citizen science projects, including classifying star orbits and image processing for selfdriving car technology.

Believing in the Rotary motto, “Service Above Self,” Malakar has been an active member of the Interact Club, sponsored by Oberlin Rotary, throughout his OHS career. He is currently serving as Interact Club Treasurer.

Malakar says being part of the BackPack Program, through Interact, has made him aware of food insecurity in his own community and provided him with an avenue to address that issue on a regular, weekly basis. Malakar has also served as the student representative on the Oberlin Schools Endowment Fund Board. He said helping to review grant proposals for the Board has been very interesting and allowed him to be part of funding programs that improve the student experience in the Oberlin schools.

Malakar has already been accepted to Ohio University and Cleveland State University, receiving that school’s President’s Scholarship.

He is still awaiting decisions from other colleges. He plans to major in mathematics or economics, with an eye toward teaching math or pursuing business administration.

Following years of altered plans due to the pandemic, Malakar says he is looking forward to a healthy and fun life after high school including lots of skiing!

Academy program. I think that shows.”

The Rock Academy puts bands together based on age, musicianship and musical genre.

The weekly hourlong rehearsals cover everything from timing and playing in tune to performing together as a band, stage presence and booking gigs.

The results speak for themselves with eight of this year’s 31 High School Rock Off bands having ties to Ron Zehl Guitar Center. The “Final Exam” included Rock Academy groups Clarence and the Beekeepers, as well as Antimatter and Skippy’s on the Run.

Brad Gendics said he wasn’t surprised Clarence and the Beekeepers placed among the tough competition.

“They’re a very good band that made the finals last year and had very good comments and scores from the judges in the first round this year,” he said. “What makes them so special is Christian and Daniel are good guitar players.

“They can really pick. Ethan does a great job with the country feel on drums. Lincoln holds down the bottom end on bass very well. Country music has a different feel, and it has to be played correctly in order to sound good.”

As far as Christian is concerned, Brad Gendics is naturally a proud father.

“He practices and works so hard at it,” Brad said. “I’m so glad he can see his efforts rewarded.”

Considering how many bands he was in, not to mention playing baseball for the Comets, it turns out the young guitarist’s practice schedule as it relates to homework was a concern in the Gendics household.

“Yeah, that’s a problem,” Christian Gendics said. “My parents get on me for not doing school work. After baseball, I’ll come home and practice my stuff. Then once a week we have an hour practice with the band at the store.”

That Saturday practice schedule for him and his three Rock Off bands would end up being a three-hour affair, but he didn’t complain.

“This is what I want to do for a living — play music,” he said.

In the meantime, he’s thinking about next year’s High School Rock Off, which with Durant graduating means Clarence and The Beekeepers will need another guitarist in the fold.

“We’re always trying to look for ways to improve our performance,” Gendics said. “Hopefully we’ll get first place next year at the Rock Off.”