TEC at Bryant senior Caleb Schrader a quiet, thoughtful leader

Caleb Schrader is not your typical leader. A young man of quite demeanor, he has no shortage of leadership experience.

Schrader is involved in Musha Marimba at his school, as well as choir, and spends lots of time helping his family.

“He has always been quiet and studious, but in the last couple of years, I have seen him take a leadership position in his performing group, Musha Marimba. He helps other students, quietly leads and takes his responsibilities very seriously,” said Heather Ward, music specialist for TEC at Bryant.

Music plays a huge role in Schrader’s life. He has been involved in Musha Marimba since 2015 and now serves as the co-president of the group.

“I started in third or fourth grade at the school. I’d seen them play before, and I liked it so I decided to join. It’s just really fun,” Schrader said.

“I’m in a choir. It’s a community choir called Crescendo Community Chorus, and I’ve been in it since third grade. We do all kinds of things. We’ve performed with the Moscow Ballet, and sang the national anthem at hockey and baseball games,” Schrader said.

He is a Running Start student at Eastern Washington University, where he takes the majority of his classes. He’s very interested in math and is enrolled in Calculus 2 at EWU. He hopes to use his education and love for math to become a math teacher.

“Going to Eastern was a big change, because I was going from a high school with 50 people to a university with almost 15,000,” Schrader said.

He hopes to continue his education at Oklahoma Christian University and pursue math education; he also received offers of academic and choral scholarships from the university. He chose the school because two of his older siblings go there, and he wants to attend a smaller college and meet new people in an intimate environment.

Family plays a big role in Schrader’s life. With six siblings he spends a lot of time helping his younger siblings on top of all his school and community work.

“One of the biggest things that impacted me was we adopted the little boys, my twin brothers, who are 4 now,” he said. “We adopted them out of foster care when they were 6 months old, and they take a lot of time, and it made so that I had to take a lot more responsibility and manage my time better between school and family activities.”

“It’s amazing (having him here to help with the little ones). It’s like having another parent, and he is so good with the littles,” said Bethany Schrader, his mother. “All three of the littles have special needs which make them more difficult. They’re particularly challenging to deal with because it’s not a disability you can see. So, he just deals with them so well, and it’s good and bad. It made him grow up much faster.”

“He’s much more mature than your average high school student,” Ward said. “He’s a hard worker, and he’s always willing to help out if something needs to be done. If someone at church needs to move or they need yardwork done, he says: ‘Yep. I’ll do it. Whatever you need, I’ll do it.’”