Washington High’s Ethan Gailushas wants to make people’s lives better

CEDAR RAPIDS — Washington High School Class of 2022 graduate Ethan Gailushas wants to help improve people’s lives.

Gailushas, 18, is the recipient of the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he plans to study chemistry. He wants to use his degree for humanitarian work and is especially interested in finding new, sustainable ways to provide people with clean water.

“Unclean water causes diseases and ailments that we really shouldn’t be seeing in the 21st century,” Gailushas said.

The Morehead-Cain Scholarship is the first merit scholarship program established in 1945 in the United States to provide four years of fully-funded education and summer opportunities. Morehead-Cain scholars must meet leadership, moral force of character, academic achievement and physical vigor criteria.

He is one of 300 students to mark graduation from Washington High School on Saturday at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse.

Before college, Gailushas, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will go on a two-year mission for to the Fukuoka region of Japan.

Gailushas began learning Japanese to better connect with people there. His father, Shane Gailushas, also went to Japan for his two-year mission. Gailushas — who didn’t get to choose where his mission would be — is ecstatic that he also gets to serve in Japan.

Gailushas is also an ice hockey goaltender for the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the Midwest High School Hockey League

“Being a goalie is in my opinion the loneliest and toughest position of any sport,” Gailushas said. “Mentally, you have to be extremely tough. You’re the last line of defense. If your team wins, you’re on top of the world. If your team loses, all the blame falls on you. … You have to get back up and smile.”

Gailushas is also a singer-songwriter and has recorded several albums with a record label in Saint Louis. He tries to bring people joy through his music, which he began writing during a period of loneliness while social-distancing in the pandemic.

He was a lead soloist in the Iowa All-State Jazz Choir this year and a member of the All-State Chorus.

Shane Gailushas said he is most proud of the ways his son is “a really good person.”

“At the end of the day, we want our kids to be really, really great people who care about others and are empathetic, understanding and motivated to try to make other people’s lives better,” he said.

“It would be nice to claim all the credit,” Shane said with a laugh. “God makes everyone in a unique way and sets them up to make contributions to the world.”

Jennifer Byers, chair of Washington High’s counseling department, said Ethan Gailushas is “earnest and truly one of the nicest kids.”

“A super well-rounded, good-at-everything, yet humble guy,” she said.

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