Despite sophomore Rowan Mozena going to a public middle school, she started her education at Christ the King for elementary school and has known since she was very little that she was going to La Salle to follow in her mom’s footsteps. 

This year, Mozena has taken an active role in the school’s student council as sophomore class president. “I just do a lot of planning for various events that happen around school,” she said.

Aside from this, Mozena’s main hobby is “pretty much only swim, every single day, 6 days a week,” she said. As she continues her tenth year as a swimmer, Mozena can easily name her favorite event as the 100-yard breaststroke. 

This summer, Mozena’s love for swimming continued into her job as a lifeguard. “I work at the aquatic park just right down the road [from La Salle],” she said.

On top of swimming, Mozena looks forward to the upcoming softball season. Mozena has taken a year-long break from softball but is “very excited” for the upcoming season where she plans to play catcher and third baseman. 

Mozena has been able to travel a lot, and names Turks and Caicos as her favorite vacation spot she’s been to. However, Mozena wants to go to “Bora Bora really badly because I’ve been to St. Martin and it’s very close and then Tahiti as well,” she said. “I really want to go to Tahiti.”

She also said that in the near future she would like to travel to Austria, a country where she recently gained dual citizenship. Almost two years after submitting her application to the American consulate in Austria, a process further delayed by the pandemic, she was finally able to receive her citizenship through a great-grandparent on her mom’s side whose land was taken from them during World War II. 

Most of Mozena’s family members on her mom’s side have obtained citizenship as well recently because of the Austrian Citizenship Act. This is a law that was passed in 2020 which created a path to dual citizenship for persecuted persons and their direct descendants. Although she has never been there, Mozena looks forward to traveling to Austria soon.  

Over the summer, Mozena was able to go to Hawaii for about a month to visit family that she was unable to see during the pandemic. She also went to Hayden Lake, Idaho with her best friend. “It was a lot of wakeboarding which is really fun to pick back up because I don’t get to do it often,” she said. 

Now in her second year at La Salle, Mozena is unable to name a least favorite class but takes a particular liking to her Honors English II class. She mentions liking the large essay the class just concluded, and said that “Mr. Larson is a character, to say the least, but he gives a lot of creative freedom.” 

As a sophomore, Mozena said she “really had to buckle down a little this year. It’s a lot more serious than freshman year, obviously,” she said. Mozena hasn’t been able to do as much outside of school because “this year my life has been really school-focused compared to past years,” she said.

Mozena’s best advice for next year’s incoming sophomores “would probably be that it is a lot harder, but just stay organized,” she said. “Stay on top of everything you have going on in your life inside and outside of school. And just take it seriously but not too seriously.”