Note: In the days leading up to graduation, we are profiling a number of seniors whose interests and accomplishments exemplify the diverse talents that make up the Class of 2008. These students and their classmates are ready to make an impact that extends far beyond Uni High. For the first portrait in this series, see Maritza Mestre's profile of Eunice How. See also Laura Dripps' profile of Kumars Salehi and Sindha Agha's portrait of Erin Hayes.

AS THE FIRST trumpet of Uni’s jazz band and orchestra, an all-state musician, an all-state actor, a member of the state-winning Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Academic Challenge team, and the winner of multiple first-place awards at the 2008 Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics state contest, Ethan Berl does it all.

Before interviewing Berl, I was unaware of his spectacular achievements. All I knew was that he’s an excellent trumpet player because I heard him perform at the winter surprise party. But after I typed his name into a search engine, I was astonished by all the results that turned up.

At merely 16 years of age, Berl has been accepted at the prestigious Princeton University. However, he will be taking a year off before going to college.

“I just need to get more work experience and get a little bit older,” he explained. “I don’t have my license yet.”

So what’s the story behind this talented young man who excels in so many different fields?

Let’s talk music first.

Berl has been singing and playing instruments for a long, long time.

“I’m told that when I was only 2 or 3 years old, I was singing on the little things that your car pulls up to on parking lots as a little stage,” he said.

Berl began taking piano lessons when he was 7, and he started playing the trumpet in fifth grade.

“I really like piano the best because you can do so much with it,” he said. “You can do melodies and stuff but you also have the whole study of harmonies that you just don’t get on many of the other instruments.”

This past winter, Berl was selected for the second time as a member of the Illinois Music Educators Association’s all-state honors chorus. In addition, he is an active member within the Uni High musical community.

“I’m in just about every music group Uni has,” said Berl, who is the first trumpet in Uni’s orchestra and jazz band I, first tenor in chorus, and a member of the Uni High madrigals.

More recently, Berl has started composing music. With his musical background, he learned composition without ever taking a formal music theory class. His first work, titled “Fantasy,” won third place in the solo keyboard category at the 2007 IMEA statewide music composition contest.

Now let’s talk acting.

In recent years, Berl has played a large role in many of Uni’s theatrical productions. One of his most noteworthy roles outside of Uni came in 2006-07 when he performed as a member of the all-state production of “Les Misérables.”

In addition to being involved in music and theater, Berl is also a computer whiz and math expert.

Berl, who admits to have never used computers much before coming to Uni, first developed an interest in computer programming when he learned hypertext markup language (HTML) in his subfreshman year.

“I just really liked [HTML] because even though it wasn’t a real programming language — it’s more of a formatting-type language — it showed me how I could use logic in a mathematical system like that to create something,” he explained. “It was like combining creativity and logic sort of together to make something new. Plus it was fairly easy to be able to use well, so it opened up a whole world of possibilities for me.”

This year, Berl has been pursuing his interest in computer science by taking two classes — CS 125: Intro to Computer Science and CS 232: Computer Architecture II — at the University of Illinois. He was also the first-place winner in the computer science category at this year’s WYSE Academic Challenge.

Besides being experienced with computers, Berl is also excellent at math. Along with his first-place finish in computer science at this year’s WYSE contest, he also placed second in the math category.

At the 2008 ICTM Math Contest, he was part of the first-place precalculus team and junior-senior eight-person team. Assisted by junior Alan Liang, Berl also placed third in the oral competition.

With all of these impressive achievements, Berl undoubtedly has an extremely bright future. After taking a year off, he will attend Princeton. But with his many interests, what will he major in?

“I’m going to focus on computer science,” he said. “I’m definitely going to keep doing math, I’m definitely going to keep doing music and theater, but they’re not going to be my focus.”

After college, Berl sees himself working in a university setting.

“I really like the university type of thing,” he said. “I don’t know if I would want to become a professor but I could definitely see myself teaching some day or researching. I really like research, looking for things that are new. … I did a lot of research in mathematics, and I’ve come up with some of the results that people have found before, and I got all excited [but] Mr. Russell [math executive teacher Craig Russell] is like, ‘No, no, they found that 200 years ago.’ ”

So what are the secrets to Berl’s success?

“I learned early on in Uni how to budget my time well, and that’s really the key,” he revealed.

In addition, Berl believes that learning often involves working with others.

“Surround yourself with really smart people is the best advice I could give,” he said. “I used to try to do it all by myself. I used to design Web pages and stuff and do big projects all by myself. I realize now teamwork is what’s really important in this field and in the world today.”