Document text
Ashland Kiwanis is pleased to recognize Brayden Preskenis as its May Student of the Month. Kiwanis honors a senior student from Ashland High School each month during the school year. First and foremost, Brayden is a woodworker and craftsman. Over the past four years he has been building a 128-square-foot Eco-home (aka a tiny house) on a hay trailer. Brayden has had some stumbles along the way (for instance, while making a drop-in sink using a router, the end-grained wood fractured, and also finding out after-the-fact that 16-inch on-center is not the same as 16 inches between joists). However, after more than 1,000 hours on the project, he pushed ahead and is now nearing completion of the tiny house. Beyond the craftsmanship required for his project, a constant challenge for Brayden was finances. To purchase the trailer and buy the initial lumber, he borrowed $1,100 from his dad. They decided on a payback schedule of $100 each month and his dad would continue to lend funds as needed; but if a single payment was missed the loan would end. Needing a job to finance this project, Brayden began babysitting two children — both with significant disabilities. Between childcare, odd jobs, and working concessions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he never missed a payment. Bottom line — Brayden is very persistent and has a high work ethic. He is also very much an outdoors person. During his high school career, Brayden took many AP classes; among them Spanish II, Health, PE, Communications, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, and Bio-Chemistry. He also found time to join the AHS Baseball Team, as well as participate in other sports. Preskenis would like to attend the School of Nursing at the University of Portland, Linfield College or Carroll College. He also has an interest in several other universities and colleges. Questions about Ashland Kiwanis? Visit ashlandkiwanis.org, or visit our Facebook Page, or call Ron at 541-488-0532.