Before coming to La Salle, senior Finn Miller attended Sellwood Middle School and then transferred to Holy Family Catholic School midway through seventh grade.

So far this year, his favorite class has been AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism because it is the most interesting to him. He also enjoys the class due to his teacher, science teacher Mr. Kyle Voge, who integrates new activities to make the class more fun. 

“We’re learning new stuff every single day, and it’s actually applicable to the real world,” he said. 

His two favorite teachers at La Salle have been French teacher Ms. Amanda Barker, whom he has had for the past three years, and math teacher Ms. Kathleen Jahn, whom he has had for the previous year in math. As he has known Ms. Barker for most of his high school career, Miller feels like they have gotten to know each other really well, and while he has not known Ms. Jahn as long, her support in his math courses has been invaluable. 

“[She] helped me through Calculus because it was a really hard class,” Miller said. “She made it interesting and sort of easy.”

These teachers have created engaging class environments for him, allowing Miller to better connect with and appreciate their material. “I think they just make school more interesting,” he said. “There’s less lectures, less talking, [and] more doing in their classes, which I like a lot.”

In the past four years, Miller has taken many electives, ranging from Journalism to both of the design thinking and computer science courses. He enjoyed the design thinking classes the most out of all of them, as he felt like he had the most freedom there. 

Outside of the academic setting, Miller has been playing baseball ever since he was a little kid. 

He first started playing basketball, baseball, and soccer when he was younger, but ultimately decided to stick with just baseball due to his enjoyment for the sport. 

In eighth grade, he joined a club team, West Portland Baseball Club, and that experience helped solidify his decision to play baseball over the other two sports due to his coach and teammates. “They kind of helped me choose baseball over the others,” Miller said.

Though he does not play club baseball anymore, he is a member of the La Salle baseball team and has been since his freshman year. 

His favorite parts of the team are the community and the coaches. “Every single practice is going to hang out with friends,” he said, referring to the lighthearted atmosphere of the practices, rather than a laborious time. 

To him, baseball is “kind of an escape from school,” Miller said. 

His favorite memories from baseball are playing freshman year on the JV2 team, where he was able to be on one team with all of his friends, and traveling to Arizona together last year for a tournament.

Not only has Miller participated in baseball, but he has also been skiing since he was young and rock climbing since freshman year. Growing up, his family used to do yearly ski trips to Mount Bachelor. 

During the winter, he usually goes up to Mount Hood Meadows every weekend on Sundays with his friends, or family. 

Miller started rock climbing when he joined a group called The Circuit Bouldering Gym, where he climbed with a group of kids usually every week, but he now only goes occasionally to work out. 

To relax, Miller likes to watch YouTube or Netflix shows, as well as listen to music and play Xbox. Currently, he has been rewatching the show Arrested Development, one of his favorites. 

Whenever Miller has free time, typically in the summer, he likes to go hiking and camping with his family, as well as his dog, Bodie, whom he got in fifth grade. 

Miller’s biggest influences are his mom, dad, and friend’s dad. 

He looks up to his dad because “he’s really steadfast and strong and good to his morals,” Miller said. “He always follows through on stuff and is dependable.”

His mom is one of his biggest influences, as “she’s creative and pushes me to do new stuff, which I always find fun,” he said. His friend’s dad is someone who has “always been a source of humor, just uplifting people,” Miller said, something he admires. 

Miller explained that he aims to become like them by making sure to stay “true to myself and not caving to what others want.”

In the future, he wants to go into the field of electrical engineering since he had a family friend who pursued that career path and it sparked his interest.

He is currently looking at Oregon State University and the University of Utah as his top two schools he wants to attend next year. Both of these schools have a good engineering program, which he is looking for, and Utah provides opportunities for skiing and other outdoor activities that he enjoys. 

Correction: March 5, 2025

A previous version of this article misstated how long Ms. Jahn taught Miller, along with the name of West Portland Baseball Club.