Topeka Sun

At the time, Dalton Ent’s decision might have seemed a bit odd to those who knew him best.

 

When he was a freshman, Ent decided to sign up for drama class at Holton High School. In doing so, Ent was seemingly testing his comfort zone.

 

While not necessarily a shy, introverted student as he progressed through elementary and middle school at Holton, Ent also wasn’t one who demanded the spotlight.

 

“I might have been a little terrified to get up there on stage as a freshman,” Ent recalls. “I think I could do it, but I also know there are a bunch of others who can do it better.”

 

Instead of appearing on stage, Ent immediately found his calling behind the scenes, gravitating to the production side of the drama class. Set design, lighting, sound – that’s what spoke to him. Everything that goes into setting that stage for a successful overall production.

 

And in a sense, his teachers at Holton say that pretty much embodies the impact Ent has had at Holton. He is this week’s CapFed® TrueBlue® Student of the Week.

 

“As a young kid, he was never really the face of anything and he still isn’t really the face of anything,” Holton principal Rod Wittmer said. “But that’s because he’s the behind-the-scenes guy who just gets things done.”

 

Ent admitted when he first arrived in high school, he wasn’t sure what his path would be.

 

“I really didn’t have any kind of goals in mind,” he said. “I was pretty nervous my freshman year. But I just wanted to see all there was.”

 

So Ent began to branch out and break out of his shell a bit while also staying true to his core.

 

He’ll tell you that one of his traits growing up that has perhaps even expanded is his inquisitive nature.

 

“My parents always got annoyed because I always asked, ‘Why?’ as a kid,” he said. “I’ve just always been pretty interested in different things and needed to know why things happen and how things work. Problem-solving and how things work, I just like that.”

 

That nature certainly has paid off for Holton’s theatrical productions, both at the high school and at the community theater as well. When Ent signed up for drama class and started dabbling in the production side of things, he knew little to nothing about audio and lighting.

 

But it didn’t take him long to pick it up.

 

“Dalton loves the light design aspect of a production,” Wittmer said. “I couldn’t run the lights without him. But more than that, Dalton’s attitude is positive and helpful. He keeps his cool and is humble at anything he does.”

 

“Someone has to do stage crew, I figured I could work my way around it,” Ent said. “Mrs. Wittmer was excited there was someone who wanted to do it and when she found out I wasn’t horrible at it, she said I was doing it for everything. I’ve done it ever since then.”

 

Wittmer pretty much turned the reins over to Ent and ever since he has handled the bulk of the audio, lighting and set design work for the school’s productions of “Bye, Bye Birdie” and “The Wizard of Oz” in addition to a handful of Christmas programs. This fall, he’s already gearing up for the school’s November production of “South Pacific.”

 

The challenge of making the show as aesthetically pleasing and powerful as possible drives Ent’s creative juices.

 

“It just took playing with it,” Ent said. “Programming the lights by colors to help make sure the acting has a good background and theme to go with it is fun to figure out. The audio side is a little more challenging making sure the microphones stay at even levels.”

 

Ent has honed his audio skills at his church, Fellowship Bible Church in Topeka, where he assists the tech crew there for weekly services. There are subtle differences – the church setting involves more public speaking and music as opposed to theatrical performance – but the crossover has helped Ent in his abilities with Holton theater.

 

“The tech side of it was pretty easy to get,” he said. “It’s time-consuming, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to learn how to do it so it comes easier.”

 

While Ent was dipping into the tech world – he’s now the go-to for all technology questions at Holton High – he also started other new endeavors. He enrolled in a 21st Century Journalism class his first semester as a freshman to get to the class he wanted in the second semester, Photo Imaging.

 

What Ent found was that both sides appealed to him and he joined the school’s newspaper and yearbook staffs as a sophomore.

 

“I thought yearbook layout was fun and interesting trying to make that work,” Ent said.

 

He quickly became an invaluable resource, serving as the ad manager for both publications and handles all the business dealings and designing. He’s also a senior photographer for the yearbook.

 

His willingness to jump in and handle any task sent his way – and some he takes on all on his own – has journalism teacher Melody Davies cringing at the thought of Ent graduating.

 

“He figured out the ins and outs of InDesign, picked up layout and just was spot on,” Davies said. “What I was really impressed with, the past two years, he and other student took ads for newspaper and yearbook stored in five different places in different formats and were just disorganized, and they worked and contacted every business that advertised with us, sent proofs of ads, were on the phone selling ads very professionally. They got those ads lined up, spread sheets. He is organized beyond organized.

 

“When you ask him to do something, he’s got it done. He checks it off, gets it done and then moves on to the next thing.”

 

His next thing this year is assisting Davies in teaching her 21st Century Journalism class, trying to educate the next wave of Wildcat journalists on the nuances of the programs they will be working with.

 

Photography has always been something that has appealed to Ent, even at an early age.

 

“My aunt when I was a kid would always let me use her camera,” he said. “So it’s a love I’ve always had from since I was young, taking pictures. I don’t know that I was good so much as a kid, certainly not a prodigy or anything. I’ve improved.”

 

Ent owns his own camera and lenses and is buying a drone to use for aerial photography. He started his own business, DE Photography, though it’s still in the process of getting off the ground. Sports photography has been his main focus though he has interest in expanding into senior photographs.

 

Originally, it was the career path he firmly had in his mind.

 

“Freshman and sophomore Dalton thought there was a career path in photography and now that’s not a path I’m thinking about,” he said. “It’s not my end goal. But as a hobby I’d still like to do it.”

 

Instead, Ent plans to study criminal investigation and pre-law in college with his eyes on Washburn, which has a Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab that is enticing to his inquisitive mind.

 

“Taking a criminal justice class and taking psychology kind of intrigued me,” he said. “I’ve always wondered why things happen, so figuring out things about why a person did this and the things behind it are something that interest me. The more I researched into it, the more I want to pursue that.”

 

Before setting off on that venture, Ent still has plenty he wants to accomplish during his high school days.

 

In addition to being on the senior board for STUCO at Holton, he’s also a member of the Resist club, S.A.F.E. (Seatbelts Are For Everyone) club and Jackson County Youth Coalition. His involvement with the Resist club has seen him become a state leader and on the national board for a club that is a youth-led anti-tobacco, smoking and vaping.

 

Ent and fellow members taught a Tobacco 101 class to Holton’s middle school students about the dangers of using drugs, smoking and vaping. In doing so, he said, “we tried to make it so they wanted to listen and participate in conversations rather than just us be high schoolers coming down to talk. We didn’t want it to be a snoozefest for them.”

 

Education is one thing, but he’s an activist as well. He attended a Take Down Tobacco rally at the Capitol in Topeka and is also determined to change licensing laws for local retailers to reduce youth access to tobacco and vaping products.

 

“He’s got his own plan to accomplish it,” said Debbie Harshaw, English teacher and Student Council sponsor at Holton who also oversees a handful of clubs Ent is involved with, including RESIST and SAFE. “It’s quite a big task, but one that easily could happen if he puts the work toward it.”

 

Which Harshaw has no doubt Ent will do.

 

“I would call him a tireless volunteer,” she said. “He will step up when no one else does and will do the jobs that not everybody will volunteer to do. And he’s not afraid to stand alone on something he truly believes in, which is not a trait found in most teenagers. He will stand alone and fight for what he believes in. I admire him most for that, because that’s how change happens when you’re not always the popular one, but the one of reason. But that’s Dalton, he’s mature beyond his years.”

 

Ent has taken mission trips with his church to Cabo and Costa Rica and also a guardian for Holton’s Honor Flight, one of 16 who accompanied a veteran to Washington D.C. this summer. When Harshaw wanted to put together a memory book for the veterans, Ent stepped up and made it happen.”

 

Ent said he’s definitely a different person from when he started out at Holton. And his teachers and advisors will say Holton is a different place since Ent arrived as well.

 

“In our clubs he was always a strong volunteer, but not a leader volunteer,” Harshaw said. “But now he’s really stepped up into that role as well.”

 

“I’d say my confidence has grown a lot and my ambitions to get things done have grown a lot as well,” Ent said. “I’ve definitely gotten out of high school what I wanted. Doing all the classes and being in all the clubs have taught me different skills and lessons than just being in the basic classes. I’ve challenged myself more and they all can teach you lessons if you let them.

 

“I’ve enjoyed high school, but I’m ready to see what college has to offer and what different paths I can do there.”

 

Original source can be found here