J. Clarke Richardson Collegiate is full to the brim with extraordinary students with many different passions. The staff at Eye on the Storm has decided that these students deserve to be recognized for their hard work and talent. Explore the lives of these exceptional students who are profiled here as part of our new series: The Trending Ten. Get ready to be inspired!
Caleb Owens is a grade 12 student at J. Clarke Richardson and is heavily involved in extra-curricular at JCR. He is an extraordinary actor and trumpeter, playing a role in JCR’s musical production of ‘High School Musical’ and playing the trumpet in Sr. Band and Sr. Jazz Band. Caleb shows that anything is possible if you just try and is an inspiration to all those going into art.
How did you become interested in your drama?
Well, the big thing for me, in high school, was joining musical theater and drama and stuff like that. And how that came to be was I just took drama in grade 9, just for fun and Mr.White was my teacher. At the end of the year he just said “Y’know what Caleb, you’re really good at this stuff and we have a musical program and you should try it out.” At first I was a little intimidated and I wasn’t really sure, but I tried it out and I loved it. I’ve been doing that for the past 2 years and from that I got into improv and stuff like that too, so for drama and stuff like that it was just taking drama class and it kinda just went from there.
Will you pursue your interests after school?
Well, in terms of studying and university I already have my ideas planned out for that, but I definitely want to keep arts, sports and stuff like that. It’s still a part of me, I’m still gonna play baseball and stuff and there’s a church league I’ll probably play in when I’m older and for improv, I really want to do stuff like that and I’m still gonna play trumpet, so although I’m not gonna pursue that as my career I’m definitely gonna keep it cause its important. I mean like having hobbies and stuff like that, it is definitely fun to just mess around with and meet some people through that, so I’m definitely gonna stay involved. For sure.
Who are your role models?
That’s a good question, well, I brought him up before but Mr.White was a big part for the drama stuff for me. He helped me out with a lot of stuff and got me involved. He got me out of my comfort zone because I am a pretty outgoing person but there are just some stuff that I was intimidated by and he helped me out with that. What were you intimidated by? Well, I have always liked entertaining people and I’ve always liked making people laugh, but in terms of doing that with a script and even with singing, like singing was a big part I had to work on definitely, but it was like, I just needed to get myself out there and getting advice from people, so yeah like that.
What inspires/motivates you?
Entertaining people, whether I’m on stage or at a competition somewhere I always try to make someone smile because I’m a pretty positive person, well I try to be, so I definitely feel like that’s a big part of me. And acting and being in the arts stuff, like, that gave me a great opportunity to do that, so yeah my motivation is definitely wanting to make people happier than before.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Well hopefully I would have graduated bible college. I’m going to Tyndale in Toronto so I would have graduated that. I wanna get better at the trumpet, I have one at home so I wanna get better at trumpet, I wanna get just as or more athletic. I just wanna, I don’t know, I guess I haven’t really thought too much. I just wanna graduate school and get better at stuff that I do, I just wanna keep being the same person I am and impact people’s lives, Do you have a job you want later in life? I definitely want to become a pastor at a church because there are so many cool opportunities that come from that, and both my parents are pastors so I’ve seen the behind the scenes as well, so I wanna be a pastor.
If you were on a deserted island what’s one object you would bring with you?
Man, if I was on a deserted island, well I would say my phone but I feel like I wouldn’t have service or data on a deserted island, so I would definitely bring my Nintendo Switch because that would kill a lot of time for me because I got my Smash Bros my Mario Kart, so I’m thinking, if I’m on a deserted island I don’t know how long I’ll live but hey if I’m playing smash bros through all of that it will be a good way to go out.
