Senior Sebastian Gang is a self-described easygoing person who “kind of just [goes] with the flow of things,” he said.

Similarly, his choice of which high school to attend after graduating from St. Therese School was just as uncomplicated — the leading components of this decision being the fact that his best friend, Gavin, planned to go to La Salle, along with Gang’s overall affinity toward the school.

“I don’t know,” Gang said. “I came here, and I liked it.” 

Coming from a smaller middle school, where he made many friends he is still close with to this day, the tight-knit community at La Salle has been one of Gang’s favorite aspects thus far. He feels that the people of La Salle have been able to grow really close to each other because of the smaller student body.

Ms. Cha Asokan’s art classes are another one of Gang’s most treasured parts of La Salle, having taken her classes since his freshman year. Now in both the AP Studio Art course and the National Art Honors Society, Gang views art as something he is passionate about, but not something he necessarily wants to go to school for in the future. 

Still, “it is a pretty big part of me,” Gang said, and he hopes to be able to incorporate art into whatever field he ends up pursuing after college.

Gang’s greatest accomplishment, he said, was earning a Gold Key for his art portfolio from this year during the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards at La Salle — something he said Ms. Cha told him hadn’t happened to a student at La Salle in around 20 years.

Also at La Salle, Gang recently became a member of the snowboarding team. “My family never really did it,” Gang said, so he didn’t begin until after he and his brother, who is currently a sophomore at La Salle, asked their parents if they could try it out on a whim. They rented some gear and started out, Gang joining the team only last season.

Although he didn’t go up to snowboard as much this season as he did during the last one, with Gang still feels he has “progressed a lot” as a snowboarder.

Apart from making art and snowboarding, skateboarding is another one of Gang’s hobbies that he partakes in when he’s not in school. The skatepark at Ed Benedict Park and the community of people there make it one of his favorite places to be — and also one that makes summer seem like it can’t come fast enough, as he looks forward to having ample time to spend there skating with his friends once school is out.

After high school, Gang plans to attend a community college, like Portland Community College, for the first two years and hopes to potentially study architecture or graphic design. Still, with relatively set plans for his time post-graduation, Gang feels conflicted about finally leaving La Salle.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Gang said. “I’m obviously excited to go to college and kind of be an adult and stuff. But it also feels like high school was kind of too short.”

Having gone into lockdown his sophomore year at La Salle following the stay-at-home mandates in 2020, Gang feels that the pandemic cut his high school experience shorter than he’d have liked. “It really doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for four years,” he said, and not being able to see people in person or meet any new friends over the course of that time has made him feel like he missed out. 

Following the two years he plans to spend in community college close to home, Gang hopes to move to a bigger city, like New York City or Chicago, and also wants to study abroad in countries like Spain or Germany.

One country in particular that Gang wants to visit over any other place in the world is Japan, which he admires for the beautiful scenery of its cities and countryside as well as its food and culture. Moreover, Gang recognizes Japan as having a lot of good places to skateboard and being home to many amazing skateboarders.

“I don’t know,” Gang said. “It’d be cool.”