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Senior excels on many fronts
 Owen
Daniels is a Renaissance man in the making, and a busy one at that.
The Albany High School senior is brainy – he entered his
senior year as the top-ranked student in the Class of 2010 and scored in
the top 5 percent of U.S. students taking the National Merit Scholarship
Qualifying Test.
He’s athletic – he was one of the leading scorers in the
Capital Region last fall to help the soccer team to an unbeaten regular
season and a Big 10 title, and this winter he plays forward on the
basketball team.
He’s s musician – a jazz piano virtuoso who is teaching
himself electric guitar.
Juggling school, sports and music with the rest of life
doesn’t faze him, though.
“Finding a balance between these activities helps me stay
centered,” Daniels said. “Besides, I like having a lot of subjects to
work on and focus on.”
Columbia University is his first choice for next fall.
Sports and music will take a back seat then, and he’ll focus on his
major: history.
“I’ve always been sort of a history guy,” he said.
He credits Albany High social-studies teachers Edward
Smith, Paul Contento, Ralph Pape and Thomas McGurn for nurturing his
interest in the subject. He credits his parents, Jackie and Jim, for
allowing him to focus on whatever subjects interested him.
And he credits Albany High for giving him a sense of
perspective. Daniels arrived at the school as a freshman after getting
his first nine years of education at a small private school.
“I went from a class of 18 people to a class of 541,”
Daniels said. “Culturally, it had a huge impact on me, and it’s given me
a greater sense of perspective.
“You find out how you can correct misunderstandings,” he
said. “And you learn that at the end of the day, we’re not all that
different. We’re all looking for the same thing.”
These days Daniels keeps busy with school, basketball and
college applications. He also squeezes in his music. And of course,
there’s socializing.
“Usually there’s time to see my friends,” he said. “But
I’m sure they’ll tell you I’ve been holed up in my house.”
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