Meet the Summer Prefects: Orion Lacour (’22)

The next up in our series of profiles about the prefects for the 2022 High School Summer Program is Orion Lacour, currently a senior on the California campus.

Orion is from Lomita, California, closer to Thomas Aquinas College than some of his fellow prefects, who hail from as far away as Ireland and New Zealand. This proximity meant that TAC was always a noticeable blip on Orion’s radar. “I went to St. Michael’s Abbey High School, where from day one the teachers pushed for all of the students to at least look at TAC,” he recalls. As a result of his teachers’ insistence, and inspired by a visit to the campus, Orion attended the Summer Program in 2016 — but the rest, in his case, was not yet history.

“I had a great time, but something was still holding me back; I’m not really sure what it was,” he says. Due to this apprehension, he didn’t immediately press on to college when he graduated high school. “Instead I took a gap year, working for UPS and doing a couple of community college classes.”

This glimpse of the ordinary world outside the walls of high school was just what he needed to nudge him toward reconsidering TAC. “During that year I realized the good that was here, which was lacking elsewhere,” he says. “There is no substitute for being able to sit and talk to good people my own age about things other than sports.” With his intentions clarified, he came to TAC as freshman in the fall of 2018.

Since then Orion has worked as a prefect on three Summer Programs, and has consistently marveled at the unifying power it has on the attendees. “It’s incredible how — within just two weeks — all these people from around the world work out their differences by striving for that common goal of actually understanding the universe,” he says. “That helps them become close friends, closer than a lot of friends that they have outside!”

To Orion, the most enjoyable part of the program is facilitating that interest in the truth, which is the root of those friendships: “Everyone’s different, and some attendees are clearly thinking more about the readings than others. I love getting into conversations with both kinds and trying to bridge that gap.” But Orion would be the first to remind incoming attendees that it’s not all about study. “I also really love the water slide,” he laughs.

As every senior must, Orion is contemplating the next steps after he graduates in May. Fortunately, his gap year helped clarify more than just his intentions toward TAC. Among the community college classes he took was one on computer drafting and design, which helped spur an interest in engineering. “I hope to get a job as a technician for a company like Northrop or Raytheon, and while I’m doing that to get a degree in engineering,” he says.

Of course, the most immediate step after graduating will be the Summer Program itself, where Orion looks forward to meeting the many and diverse attendees and marveling as they again merge into one loving community of friends.