Two mothers grieve for lost sons

Johnson Grads Ready For Next Challenge

Anyone who thinks learning can&rsquo;t be fun never worked with Amy Malishchak. In her years with Northwest Area High School&rsquo;s Odyssey of the Mind team, she&rsquo;s made a 20-foot castle and a mechanical cow that makes milkshakes. In a society that constantly seeks to be shocked or awed, Malishchak&rsquo;s creative talents can take her far and made her Best &amp; Brightest in the Vocational &amp; Technical Skills category.
In Odyssey of the Mind, teams design and build balsa wood structures, then compete to see which structure can support the most weight. They also have to prepare scenery and skits to go with their creations. It&rsquo;s an activity that Malishchak has worked hard at and enjoyed for years.
&ldquo;A few years ago, we made it to the World Finals in Colorado. We built a structure that was three different heights &mdash; it supported 600 pounds, and we finished 10th in the whole world. Our skit to go with that was about the three little pigs. That skit was second place out of the whole world,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That was really great!&rdquo;
Doing well at the World Finals was just one of the many honors Malishchak has achieved. She&rsquo;s in the National Honor Society and was named captain of the cheerleaders and drum captain of the band. Malishchak has also been selected to both district and all-state chorus by the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association.
One of her favorite classes combines her talents in creative construction and music. In multimedia music, Malishchak said, &ldquo;We learn about the different parts of making commercials and live newscasts and we actually do the filming. When we are done, we put our video creations to music that we produce.&rdquo; The class lets her build on an exciting experience she had last summer when she took part in a New York Film Academy class in Disney World. 
&ldquo;We filmed at Epcot,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We wrote our scripts and got to use actors from the acting class, and we got to use state-of-the-art editing equipment.&rdquo; She hopes her future can combine what she&rsquo;s learned from Odyssey of the Mind and her love of films. &ldquo;Odyssey has made me more outgoing,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You have to be creative and it shows you different ways to look at things.
Malishchak will continue to develop her creative talents in film design at University of Pittsburgh.