Before attending La Salle, Patrick McGowan, like many of his peers, attended Franciscan Montessori Earth School — an environment with upsides and downsides, he said.

Despite some of the negatives he sees stemming from the small class size, McGowan enjoyed his time at FMES. 

“It’s a small school, but that just means that you kind of know everybody,” he said, and that’s not just the students. “You have a personal relationship with all the teachers, and you don’t feel like you ever get lost in the crowd.”

McGowan has known from a young age that he wanted to attend La Salle for a variety of reasons.

“I’ve pretty much always wanted to go to La Salle since I was about 10,” he said. “I heard of people in my middle school going to La Salle, and I looked into it, and I really liked the extracurriculars that they had and the room for academic growth.”

At La Salle, McGowan is involved in theater as the crew head for lighting, Speech & Debate — where his main events are parliamentary debate and impromptu speaking — and band, playing as a percussionist.

History teacher and former Speech & Debate coach Mr. Michael Doran has had an incredible impact on McGowan so far, McGowan said. 

“I had him for Speech and Debate, and then World History, and then I had him as my Speech & Debate [team] coach,” he said. “I probably spent more time with him than any other teacher at La Salle for my freshman year, I think that the demeanor that he brings to La Salle is something that you can’t replicate.”

McGowan’s role in theater as the lighting crew head is different from last year when he was focused more on sound design. But for him, it was not a difficult transition.

“The only reason that I started doing lights originally is because they didn’t really have anybody else on lights,” he said. “I just kind of moved like three feet to the left.”

In his free time, McGowan will occasionally set aside five or six hours to browse Portland record shops, searching for interesting music.

“I know a lot of people say, don’t judge a book by its cover, but that’s basically what you do with new music,” McGowan said. “What I like to do is, if it really interests me, I’ll listen to the album on Spotify while I’m looking through it, and if I like it, I’ll go back and get it.”

McGowan’s love for music extends beyond the band room and record shop. One of his favorite memories is attending a concert with his father.

“The first concert I ever went to was a few years ago,” McGowan said. “I went to a punk festival with him, and we sat at the railing the whole time and just watched the bands that I grew up with and he grew up with, and that was probably my best memory with him.”

McGowan is even considering a potential career in music. 

“I’d really like to be a musician, that’s my biggest dream,” he said. He is also considering copyright law.

In the future, McGowan wants to attend college with his dream school being Stanford University.

“Since I wanted to go to La Salle, I’ve wanted to go to Stanford with it,” he said. “But I think I’ll probably end up going to OSU.”