Mrs. Barnhart’s Theology and the Art Class - Front row (l-r): Emma Moore, Blair Feng, Meghan Rinner, Michelle Lieng, Noah Sierota, Hailey McNall, Natalie Yee, Steven Walker, Alex Janetzke, Sara Burems, Asiah Dorsey. Back row (l-r): Lucas Yu, Kendall Schmedes, Cameron Smith, Dexter Myers, Joshua Johnson, Kiko Zheng, Tanya Li, Megan Espiritu, James Farr-Jones

Sierota poses with students in class (l to r) Steven Walker, Alex Janetzke, Hailey McNall, Noah Sierota and Natalie Yee

As a member of Echosmith, a double platinum indie pop band, Maranatha High School alumnus Noah Sierota ’14 has had the privilege of traveling the world, hob knobbing with the A-listers, and meeting thousands of people. He returned to Maranatha last week to speak with the Theology and the Arts class about being a Christian professional artist.

Sierota began his time by sharing the wonderful grounding he received at MHS. Having been out in the world, he has realized how amazing it is being able to go to a Christian school and learn from a Christian perspective. “It is something very different,” he explained, “I’m excited for you guys.” He continued, “It is important to bring what we learn from wise godly instructors in a Christian School into this world. If I didn’t have the Christian community and if I didn’t have faith I would be lost. If I didn’t have Christ I would be very, very lost.”

Sierota speaks to MHS class

The industry is a difficult place. Noah has easy access to anything he wants and he faces a lot of temptation. Aside from temptation, he has also experienced people attacking him for his beliefs. “People comment about what I do or don’t do. We even had someone hack our identity and try to take us down because of our beliefs.” Despite the at-times challenging atmosphere, Noah has realized that he can use his voice to make a difference and speak hope into people’s lives.

Overall, Noah loves what he does and has a lot of things to be thankful for. He loves traveling, writing music, and dancing on stage. “It sounds kind of silly,” he says, “but I really do enjoy it.” The drastic change from life at MHS has been scary, hard, and exciting at the same time. “Thankfully I had supportive, kind people keeping me grounded.”

“As far as Art and Theology?”… he said to the class, “That’s something I’m trying to balance every day of my life.”

Maranatha High School, 169 S. St. John Avenue, Pasadena, (626) 817-4000 or visit www.maranatha-hs.org.

Sierota performs for the class