Senior Ian Petros is a member of the La Salle varsity boys basketball team. He enjoys spending time with his family and looks forward to traveling in the future. Petros thinks it would be interesting to learn to skydive, bungee jump, or even learn how to fly a helicopter. 

At six years old, Petros moved from Jacksonville, a small town outside of Medford, to closer to the city of Portland. His transition was tough because in Jacksonville, “it’s surrounded by nature, and coming into the city is kind of a whole different experience,” he said. 

A contributing factor to Petros’ decision to attend La Salle was that many of his friends from St. Ignatius School, where he attended fourth through eighth grade, were planning on going to La Salle for high school. Before moving to St. Ignatius, he attended Cedar Mills Elementary School in Portland. 

One thing Petros likes about the environment at La Salle is “how tight all the students are with the teachers,” he said. “It makes it easy to cooperate with them. It’s important to have that connection with teachers.”

Normally, Petros is either playing basketball or spending time with friends and family. There isn’t one specific thing Petros does with his loved ones, “it’s more about the people than what we’re doing,” Petros said.

A proud moment of Petros’ was building a doghouse for his family’s german shorthair pointer, Jackson. The process was long. He had to make many trips to Home Depot and figure out how to ask for specific cuts of wood, something he hadn’t done before. 

“And I messed it up, I messed it up at first,” he said. Eventually, after about a month of working on the project, Petros completed the doghouse. “But when it was done it was so nice because I painted it and it looked beautiful,” he said. “I gotta say, it was amazing.”

After graduating, Petros plans on attending an in-state college and possibly pursuing a career in business. His interest in business comes from his dad. “[He] bought a beer and wine store around 2015, I’d say since then he’s been able to grow it a lot,” he said. “And that’s just inspiring to me.”

Petros’ dream career would be working in the sports field, possibly working for a football or basketball team. And while he still takes inspiration from his dad, “I do want to do my own thing at the end of the day,” he said. 

In the future, Petros hopes to experience places outside of Oregon. He can envision himself living in San Francisco, or on the East Coast, “but a big city for sure,” he said. 

Petros’ advised underclassmen to consciously choose classes senior year. He encourages students not to take rigorous courses in their final year of high school because there are a lot of other stressors that come into play, like college applications. He also wants younger students to know that it is okay to not take yourself too seriously.