This week’s La Porte County Life in the Spotlight features Kate Luce, a senior at La Porte High School. An active student, Luce is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the school’s newspaper, the Slicer Newsroom, and is on multiple academic teams including the Academic Super Bowl, Academic Decathlon and Quiz Bowl.
It’s easy to see that Luce is a very successful student at LPHS. However, she is more than meets the eye. “My true passion is art,” said Luce. “I come home and that’s all I want to do is just paint and draw.”
Luce has always loved art, but it was in 8th grade when she decided to take it up a notch and start working towards her goal of attending art school.
“I knew that it was something more than just a hobby. I wanted to do something with it that other people usually don’t,” Luce said, in regards to art.
In 9th grade, Luce began attending classes at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts and even recently work on a mural at the center. There, she encountered a teacher who really inspired her. She learned that “It’s okay to mess up and be okay with your art.”
“It gave me the confidence that art is my true passion and that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life,” said Luce.
Luce’s plans for the future includes attending Indiana University South Bend for her general education courses and then heading to the Art Institute in Chicago for Art Education with an emphasis on Art History. Luce recently took a high school class at the Art Institute and said, “It felt like home.”
Luce is particularly interested in drawing and painting, and creating portraits. At the moment, she is really enjoying her 3D art class at school where they are working on fabric dying and sewing. She is also involved in Art Club at school.
The correlation between writing and art for Luce is her ability to express herself. “If I can write it out or draw it out, people understand what I’m talking about,” she said.
Luce began working at the Slicer Newsroom, a student run newspaper, in her sophomore year when a teacher recommended it to her. Two years later, she is a Co-Editor-in-Chief.
Her duties include guiding the class and helping students with their stories, “It’s a class where the teacher is more of an advisor than anything else.” said Luce.
From her time at the Slicer Newsroom, Luce has learned that you have to work hard to get a great story done. “You have to push yourself and be brave,” she said.
On the side, she works part-time at WCOE/WLOI, a radio station in La Porte, as a board operator. She has been working there since her sophomore year. As the board operator she makes sure the commercials play and even gets to talk on the air sometimes. “Even though it’s kind of scary at first, it’s pretty cool.” said Luce.
When asked if she had any goals for her last year in high school, Luce said “Keep my grades up. I’m taking some pretty hard classes.”