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Neighbors

He's Kino school's go-to guy

Teenager is a whiz at audio-visual work
By Dan Sorenson
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.10.2006
At another school, Ethan Nichols might be just another of those quiet, shoe-gazing kids who run the audio-visual equipment.
At Kino Learning Center, 6625 N. First Ave., the 15-year-old is the go-to guy for a lot of things. He's appreciated.
"He enjoys doing hard work," says history teacher/drama adviser/school board treasurer/news-letter editor Ann Davis, "so he's one of the first that teachers go to."
The school, which has only 80 students total and only 30 high schoolers, puts a lot of emphasis on the arts. Music and dramatic performances are regular events.
So Davis says there's a lot of work for a student eager to move, set up and run sound and lighting equipment.
With so few students and only 15 teachers, Davis says the teachers know all the students well. "In a school this size you really do appreciate everybody for their uniqueness," says Davis.
Nichols just won a President's Volunteer Service Award, given under the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Program on behalf of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.
"I was really surprised, because a lot of the community service I do — audio engineering at my church — I really like what I do. It doesn't seem that hard," he says.
Kino requires high school students to perform 30 hours of community service each year, Davis says. The award was for work Nichols does at Casas Adobes Baptist Church, 10801 N. La Cholla Blvd. He handles the light and sound for the church's rocking, youth-oriented 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. Sunday services.
He says the church work counts for his community service requirement, but that he'd do it anyway.
And he's not talking about turning on a $99 Radio Shack public address system and plugging in a karaoke microphone. Nichols says the church has powerful, first-rate professional sound and lighting gear, and he uses it all.
"We have a full band. Usually our pastor talks. And sometimes we'll have a movie and stuff, and there's lighting involved in that. We have ceiling-mounted (lighting) 'cans' and a 32-channel (audio mixing) board," Nichols says.
The band's vocal microphones as well as the guitars, keyboards, bass and drums all go through the board. Nichols says there are six microphones on the drums alone.
"It's nice stuff," he says.
He also handles gear set-up and running the audio board for the bands' Monday rehearsals.
It's not Hollywood," says Jack Schull, the church's high school pastor. "But we shoot for quality. We've come a long way in the last two years."
He said Nichols and the other students who work on the church's technical support teams "help everything flow" without "those cringe moments."
Eventually, Nichols says, he wants to work as a professional audio or recording engineer.
He's getting real-world experience.
He's had family members of musicians ask him to turn the volume up on their child performers. "That's happened," he says. "You learn to say 'yes.' "
Nichols says he really likes "science and building things, technology in general." As for math, "It's not my favorite, but I'm decent in it."
Though technology may come easy to Nichols, writing does not. That's something he had to confront to win the presidential award, writing four essays.
"I'm a very poor writer," he says. "I'm working on it, very hard. But it is something that is very problematic for me. It's just a struggle, and I have no enjoyment from it at all."
"But he does like to work in the shop a lot." says Davis, his history teacher last year. "Welding. And he's just a whiz with sound engineering."
Northwest
● Contact reporter Dan Sorenson at 573-4185 or dsorenson@azstarnet.com.