Wise Beyond His Years

Imagine this as your schedule. You wake up before the sun rises. You arrive at Strake Jesuit for Martial Arts practice, and the sun still isn’t up. While most of your peers are still fast asleep, you are blocking kicks and punches. You shower up, change your clothes and head to Mass in the Chapel of St. Ignatius. You then spend a day in rigorous Strake Jesuit academic classes, but you don’t forget to pray the Rosary with Pastoral Ministry friends. After school you show up at Quiz Bowl practice to have a taskmaster (yours truly) put you to work on mastering literature (“Lance, I need you to add 50 authors/works to your Quizlet by tomorrow, mkay.”) You go home, bond with your family at dinner, do your homework, and work on a poem for Inkwell Magazine, the Strake Jesuit literary publication. You hit the hay early enough to repeat the cycle the next day. 

Welcome to the world of Lance Alonte, Class of 2024. 

At Jesuit we work hard to cultivate in our students the Grad at Grad virtues—Religious, Loving, Physically Fit, Intellectually Competent, Open to Growth, Committed to Doing Justice. In special cases, students exhibit these virtues well in advance of graduation. Lance is one such student. Having coached Lance in Quiz Bowl, I can attest to the high quality of his character and to his openness to growth. Though being part of a program that is among the best in the country might be intimidating to some, Lance believes that Quiz Bowl has helped inspire him to a “love of learning.” 

Inkwell Creative Writing Club has been another fruitful endeavor in Lance’s life. In his own words, “This club helped me to cultivate and continue my passion for writing, which helped me to win runner-up in the creative writing competition at Jesuit.” Lance’s writing earned him a scholarship to the Fearless Catholic Writing Camp this summer at the University of St. Thomas. English teacher Mr. Brock Scheller notes that Lance is “talented both as a reader and as a writer. Nothing gets by Lance. His keen insight into the meaning of texts has helped me notice details even in the texts I have taught before.” 

“I am extremely grateful for my family,” Lance says, “because my parents and brother are always there for me in my struggles and triumphs. My parents emphasized the value of hard work, and I have learned that there is always a purpose or reason behind our work. This instilled in me a desire to work for something that will satisfy my human longing for happiness, Our Lord, ever-present in the Eucharist.” Lance especially credits his brother Zachary ’21 for inspiring the best in him.

We consider ourselves very lucky to have Lance on our campus for two more years. His impact on our community will be immense.