Teen finds happiness in helping other people

Caleb Burnett excels at a great many things, but morning drive-time conversation is not one of them.

“I hardly sleep at all, so I nap on the way to school with my friends,” Burnett says. “I’m always knocked out.”

Makes sense. The Damien Memorial School senior serves as student body president and co-president of the school’s National Honor Society chapter, plays offensive tackle and center for the Monarchs football team and covers campus happenings as half of the school’s newspaper staff. He’s also an Eagle Scout, a paddler, a baseball player and a devout Catholic who has participated in numerous community serv­ice projects through his church.

So let the young man grab his sleep when he can.

Burnett was born in South Korea and has lived in Hawaii since age 5. His father is a pediatrician at Triple Army Medical Center; his mother is a nurse at Pali Momi.

With his parents’ encouragement, Burnett has spent much of his young life exploring his natural gifts and giving back to his community through a wide variety of service opportunities.

A Scout since the second grade, Burnett last year completed an Eagle Scout project in which he recruited some 70 fellow Scouts, football teammates and Navy personnel to clear mangrove and other invasive vegetation from a historic fishpond in Aiea.

“It was a really cool experience,” Burnett said. “Even though I am not Native Hawaiian, I felt a connection with the land there and its history and culture. I just wanted to do something to help.”

For Burnett the biggest challenges are often the most exhilarating.

At 5 foot 5 and 170 pounds, Burnett is hardly the paragon of O-line heft, but he does have the classic center’s ability to read defenses and react to last-second audibles. Perhaps more important, he has a belly full of fight.

“I have those Filipino genes so I’m not very tall,” he jokes. “If you can’t see me, I’m probably at the bottom of the pile. But it gives me motivation. Football is a game of heart, and my parents always pushed the concept that even if you’re not the biggest, you can still get things done.”

Off the field, Burnett enjoys reaching out to as many fellow students as he can and broadening his own awareness through contact with peers whose lives and experiences are different from his own.

With the end of his high school days in sight, Burnett is hoping to be accepted by one of the U.S. service academies and to one day be a physician.

“I find that I’m the happiest when I can help other people,” he says. “My family has always encouraged me to put other people before myself, and I think my faith, and the blessing I’ve had to attend a school like Damien, has helped to build my morals. If it wasn’t for the support of my parents, my family, my mentors and my peers, I wouldn’t have been able to have the life that I’ve had.”

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.