Town: Mannington

High School: North Marion High School

GPA: 4.3

Plans for after graduation: Attend West Virginia University to study either engineering or medicine. He said he isn't committing to a major yet because he's changed his mind several times already. But he does know that he wants to continue playing tennis and performing music while in college.

Marching Toward Success

North Marion High School Musician Aims for a Career in the Sciences

Music and math, they say, are complementary skills.

That seems to be true for North Marion High School senior Tyler Oldaker, one of three winners of a full-ride scholarship as part of the 2011 EQT Students of Excellence program.

Oldaker lives in Mannington with his mother, who is a cook for the Marion County Board of Education, and 15-year-old brother. But his family is much larger than that: His mother's mother was one of nine children, and many aunts, uncles and cousins live nearby.

Throughout his school career, Oldaker has excelled academically, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average in middle school and 3.8 in high school, even with a full schedule of activities. 

His favorite subject? 

"I love math," Oldaker said. "Math has just always seemed easy to me and you can use it for so many things in life. I'm taking college algebra now."

Beyond academics, though, Oldaker's accomplishments center on music, which he said he has loved since he began singing in elementary school.

He took piano lessons at one time, but had to stop when knee surgery in sixth grade left him unable to put his leg under the piano. After recovering, though, he taught himself and now sight reads well and plays in his church youth group. He's currently learning to play "What Faith Can Do" by the Christian rock band Kutless for church.

Around the time he stopped piano lessons, Oldaker was inspired by an older cousin to join the school band. He now plays alto, tenor, baritone saxophone, as well as trumpet. 

And this year, he is field commander for North Marion's marching band.

"Ever since I started with band, it was my goal to become head honcho," he said.

He learned to conduct by watching friends who have been field commanders, then snagged the position in a competition in which each contender had to conduct the national anthem and the school fight song. 

Oldaker said he loves being field commander, but said it has a downside: He doesn't get to march, and won't play in the band this year until concert season. 

"It's tough to give up," he said.

Saxophone led Oldaker, roundabout, to become a singer and dancer in the school's show choir, Notables. 

"My sophomore year, I played saxophone for their show," he explained. "But then last year they needed singers and dancers, and I thought, ‘What the heck?' and I did all right and liked it."

He also performs outside school with his youth group, which calls itself Revelation Afire. The small group of friends performs at Dents Run Baptist Church in Mannington. Oldaker sings and plays piano for the group, which also recently traveled to perform at St. John's Methodist Church in Fairview for its 99th homecoming. 

As for athletics, Oldaker said he enjoyed soccer and basketball before his knee injury. Following the surgery, he stayed away from sports until picking up tennis as a sophomore. 

Now he's the No. 3 player on the school team. His goal for his senior year: to qualify for the West Virginia high school tennis tournament.

A member of the National Honor Society since his junior year, Oldaker helps out at soup kitchens and participates in making baskets for the food pantry. 

North Marion High School also requires students to put in 30 hours of community service in order to graduate. Oldaker's volunteer activities have included Mountain State Physical Therapy — a facility he visited more than 100 times during the two-year rehabilitation of his knee. This year he also may shadow a pharmacist at Rite Aid. 

Oldaker plans to attend West Virginia University and to study either engineering or medicine. 

"I'm going into it open-minded because I've changed my mind so many times in the last couple years," he said. "Engineering, I think it'd be fun to do, whatever kind of engineering I decided to go into. Medicine would be good for helping people out."

He plans to continue music and tennis in college, although he said he places the highest priority on academics.