Sixth in a series

Kid prepares to excel in lots of areas

Ryan Nikodem

Thirteen-year-old Ryan Nikodem wants to excel in lots of things. And he's willing to expend extra preparation effort to reach his goals.

One future goal for the 8th grader is to be a major contributor on the Chaminade High School soccer team.

Another is to volunteer for a variety of community activities that help both young and old.

And, that's all while continuing to earn good grades.

Ryan is in Chaminade's middle school classes this year. He's making extra preparations now so he'll be ready for the challenges of high school and college.

This willingness to prepare even extends to his baby-sitting. He said he looks after younger kids nearly every weekend.

To be ready, Ryan completed a class to become a certified baby-sitter. Then, he followed that up with CPR classes. "I wanted to be better prepared," he said.

This willingness to prepare for his goals helped him earn a 2003 St. Louis Young Achiever of the Year award last spring. The annual awards go four elementary, four middle school and four high school kids for school and community accomplishments and service.

(Young Saint Louis.com announced the 2003 Achievers in the May, 2003, edition. This is the sixth in a series of profiles of the four elementary and four middle school winners.

(To read the May announcement story, click here. For the June profile of Kristen Delia, click here. For the July profile of Meghan Biotnott, click here. For the August profile of Alexander Ecklund, click here, and the September profile of Mark Council, click here. For Julia Epplin-Zapf's October profile, click here.)

Another way Ryan is preparing for the future is investing money from his baby-sitting, umpiring and gifts in the stock market. With help from dad, Ryan has begun investing.

"I started last year and so far I'm ahead of the money I put in," he said.

He's been preparing himself for high school soccer by playing on school and select teams.

His Scott Gallagher select soccer team won the Missouri Cup in 2002. His team finished second in the 2003 competition, losing in the Cup finals to another Gallagher team.

His team plays in a league and also travels to tournaments. He's been as far as Chicago and played last month in a meet in Champaign, Ill.

A mid-fielder, Ryan is playing in the 14-and-under division this year. Also, he plays for his school team in a CYC league.

"We went undefeated in CYC last year but they wouldn't let us advance in tournaments. They consider our school team to be a select team too," he said.

Ryan said he like playing mid-fielder because he gets to play both offense and defense.

"Chaminade has a 9th grade team. Next year, I hope I can play at least with the 10th grade team, if not the varsity," he said.

To prepare, he trained a lot in the summer to improve his ball control. He also has running routes in a couple of the neighborhoods near home to improve his stamina.

He's stepping up his volunteer work this year. "I'm going to be going to a nursing home once a week," he said.

He's already an altar boy at St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church. In addition to helping serve mass, he helps prepare for the Fall Festival and Book Fair fund-raisers there.

The church has an elementary school. Ryan went there before going to Chaminade.

Through the church, he also umpires baseball and volunteers as a referee for soccer games. He gets paid for umpiring but said, "I just volunteered for soccer because they needed an extra ref."

At school and in his neighborhood, he also helps kids with computer problems.

"I've had a laptop since sixth grade and I've gotten real familiar with computers. Now, I help other kids install software and printers and help with normal problems," he said.

Ryan wants to be a dentist, like his dad, Gerard. About college, he said he'd like to go to either Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., or Notre Dame. His father earned his dental degree from Creighton.

(For more information on Young Achievers, see the website at www.iln-gateway.org.)