Columbus Monthly / May 2012 / Super Students: Eric Niehaus

 Email  Print  Feed

Super Students: Eric Niehaus

Soccer, the stage and singing (to begin with)

On opening night of the St. Francis DeSales High School production of Cinderella, things were going well for Eric Niehaus, who had a starring role as Prince Charming. Despite a bad case of jitters, he hit his marks, emoted like a pro and reached that high note with grace and power.

But nerves are a tricky thing. They can make you skip ahead—or back—in time. “I walked backstage and started changing clothes,” Niehaus recalls with a shrug. Someone realized his mistake and questioned him. “By then I’m in my underwear,” he says, his face flushing even now at the thought. “And I should be dancing with Cinderella in the big ballroom scene. I grab the jacket and goofy pants—throw them on—and go out, with no shoes, do the scene.” Frosty looks from Cinderella, silence from the cast when the curtain drops. Nevertheless, Niehaus won Best Actor for the production.

Recover and move on. He took the same approach with grades, after what he terms disappointing freshman and sophomore years. “You grow and mature,” Niehaus, 18, muses. “Suddenly I realized I’d better make some changes if I wanted to go to a great college.” Tied for fourth in his class, he’s an honor roll student and National Honor Society member, a winner of the 2011 Wendy’s High School Heisman Award for Academics, Athletics and Leadership. He also was his school’s nominee for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Award. Nice comeback, huh? He’s hoping to attend the University of Virginia, Notre Dame or Wake Forest, double majoring in English and marketing.

What college admissions officers are most likely to be impressed by, however, is the range and depth of his extracurriculars. His talent and leadership span two distinctly different crowds: the “Gleeks”—chorus, an a cappella group called the Reverbs, drama club—and the soccer jocks. He’s been captain and a four-year member of the team.

“From quiet artsy types to the alpha males who take charge of a room, I seemed to have earned their respect,” Niehaus notes. Part of that, he admits, is the respect he affords others. He’s unfailingly polite and leads by example: “Like in soccer—I’d work hard, be first back to the line when we’d run suicides.”

His parents have something to do with that, Niehaus suggests. Robert, his dad, a purchasing manager at Abbott Labs, has a favorite saying, “Don’t tell me, show me.” Works great for grades and cleaning your room. And his mom, Joan, a coordinator at Caretenders, a home health agency, has taught him the value of volunteering.

Niehaus has accrued more than 375 hours of community service. On a weeklong mission trip with his church to Cranks Creek, Kentucky, a flood-ravaged pocket of Harlan County, Niehaus says his eyes were opened to overwhelming poverty. “I’ve volunteered in my own community, but they’re well-off compared to this man and woman,” Niehaus says. “We built an extra room for them, installed a window. They were so poor, helpless.” He pauses. “I truly believe I am my brother’s keeper.”