Please join The Faces of Cincinnati as we recognize our graduating high school seniors for 2021. Here is hoping they take their positive spirit to help create a better world!
Meet Grant Gerhardt . . .
What High School do you attend?
Summit Country Day.
Please tell us a little bit about your family.
I live with my mom, dad, and brother. We also have two dogs and a cat. I am also very close to my grandparents, who do not live with us but I see often.
What are your plans after graduation?
I plan to study environmental studies at Kenyon College. After that I hope to go to graduate school. In terms of a career, I’m not yet sure what I’ll do, but I’d love to do something related to the environment and conservation.
What are two of your favorite restaurants in our community?
Tēla Bar and Kitchen in Wyoming and The Echo in Hyde Park.
If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
I would go to New Zealand just because of the unmatched rugged beauty of the country. I’d get the chance to feel like I was a character in The Lord of the Rings. Since I can’t choose just one place, I would also love to visit Scotland because the history and culture of the country are so rich.
What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is one of my favorite movies, and my favorite TV show might be Twin Peaks.
If you were asked to give advice to your senior class and the younger students at your school, what would you say?
I would tell them to find the right group of people that they really connect with and can be vulnerable around and keep these people close. These are your people. They know you and they have your back like you have theirs. Reach out to others and find these types of people because they’re the ones that ultimately make the whole thing worth it.
If you were able to be cast as yourself into a television show or series, what show would you want to be in?
Probably Northern Exposure because I love the setting, the tight-knit and supportive community it depicts, as well as the reflective nature of the show.
If you could choose anyone to have lunch with, who would you choose? Why? And where, locally, would you meet for this lunch?
To be fully honest, I’m not that interested in celebrities, so my first answer would probably be a friend that I haven’t seen in a while or someone I’d like to know better just to catch up and reconnect or to build a stronger relationship with them. I’d love to meet them at a small local place like Allyn’s Cafe in Columbia Tusculum where we could have a conversation.
What is your favorite thing about our community?
Living on the outskirts of the city, I love how much I am able to easily move from neighborhood to neighborhood. I love that I don’t feel stuck inside my small local area but instead I feel like the whole city becomes one large community.
Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
I often joke and say that I’ll be living in a cabin in Maine or on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with a small garden and several houseplants, but in reality I’m not sure. I hope to be doing something that allows me to explore our world and gain new experience.
What is something on your bucket list?
Backpacking in Patagonia or Scandinavia or hiking a longer trail like the Appalachian Trail are definitely a couple things on my bucket list.
What is your go to band / singer when you cant decide what to listen to?
Of Monsters and Men.
Favorite month? favorite holiday? and best single day on the calendar?
My favorite month other than my birth month (March) is September because it marks the transition between summer and fall and temperatures are comfortable. My favorite holiday is Halloween because I like the season of fall and the whole spooky aspect of it. The best calendar day is New Year’s Day because it makes me feel optimistic to have a whole new year of opportunity ahead.
What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
Warm summer evenings spent with good friends.
What is something you want to do as soon as this pandemic is finished?
Spend as much time with the people I care about as I possibly can, especially because I’m going away to college soon and won’t be able to see them as often.
Who inspires you to be better?
My friends and family whose qualities I admire who show me the ways that I can become better.
