Student Life
Student Life
The character traits and abilities that make for a good life cannot be developed in an academic program alone. They come also from skills and habits instilled outside the classroom. That is why co-curricular activities are a crucial, required dimension of La Lumiere School. They enhance each student’s education, strengthen relationships with teachers, and deepen the community bond.
After-School Activities & Requirements
Each student is required to participate in an after school co-currucular program during the fall, winter, and spring seasons. Students must participate in at least one team (academic or athletic) and one athletic activity (whether independently or on a team) each year.
After-school activities include opportunities in athletics, academics, and other co-curriculars.
Leadership at La Lumiere
The Prefect Leadership Program challenges a group of student leaders each year to serve their school through significant contributions in all areas of the school community, including student life, admissions, community service, spiritual life, residential life, and the overall quality of the school experience. These leaders oversee councils of selected students and together establish a full range of student ownership and involvement. All prefects uphold the motto and vision of the school and what it stands for in word, action, and deed. Leadership at La Lumiere is an intense commitment of time and energy, as student leaders perform their duties on top of normal student obligations.
The Office of Student Leadership also provides extensive support for students who want to serve the La Lumiere community through other means, including working side-by-side with students who are interested in developing special academic and co-curricular programming according to their talents and interests.
Service Opportunities
Participation in community service is an important aspect of life for all La Lumiere students. The Serviam Prefect works to organize and coordinate the calendar of events. La Lumiere encourages students to become involved in as many service projects as possible. We believe that serving others, whether it is “hands-on” or raising money, is a great way to give back to our local, national, and global communities.
La Lumiere students are very active in the larger community of Northwest Indiana, and beyond. Students participate in some projects on a weekly or daily basis such as visiting the local nursing home, helping at elementary schools, or volunteering at the local animal shelter.
Throughout the year, our students also volunteer in various capacities at local social service events and campus-based events to raise funds for a variety of organizations.
Students may also have the opportunity to serve abroad on international study and service trips.
The Lumina Program
Our Lumina program is designed for students to truly realize our mission by forming character through service and community involvement, by cultivating scholarship through student-led passion-driven projects, or by exploring faith through further learning of their own, or a different, faith.
Students have the opportunity to choose from a diverse range of programs or forge their own path with a student-led, passion-driven research project under the mentorship of a faculty member. Regardless of the program a student , this provides a low-risk, high reward environment for students to become more complete versions of themselves.
The semester culminates with a symposium, in which students from every program type present the learnings and reflections from their efforts this semester.
Program Spotlight
School Buddies
Students are paired with an elementary school student buddy and each week they visit their buddy onsite at their local elementary school in which they learn and play together as they continue to build a supportive mentor relationship.
Humane Society
Each week a group of students visit the local Humane Society to help staff in the shelter’s operations and care for animals.
Robotics
This program introduces students to how to design, build, and operate a VEX Robotics robot. Offered to both students new to VEX robotics curious to exploring the basics of robotics and students more advanced eager to prepare for the upcoming VEX Robotics competition season.
Traditions
These are the things that make us who we are. They are the unwavering drumbeat of La Lumiere, the heart and soul of our community, the timeless events that bring us together year after year.
Each year members of the incoming Freshman class are invited to come to campus for a five day experience living together in the dorms and enjoying an introduction to academics, student life, and most importantly, community at La Lumiere.
Spirited competitions, elaborate trivia, and an exhaustive scavenger hunt round out three days of athletic practices and ice breaking activities. Before our academic endeavors begin, we start with a fun-filled program focused on getting to know each other.
On three Fridays throughout the fall semester, the Freshman class will gather after school to participate in bonding activities such as minigolf, gokarting, and haunted houses.
La Lumiere’s year-long series of Heads’ Cup activities is one of the ways in which our community connects. It is a forum that develops teamwork, fosters pride in our school, and keeps the history of La Lumiere alive in students’ experience. More List Heads’ Cup Teams and Years won
A designated time when seniors give speeches to the entire student body reflecting on their idea of character, scholarship, and faith during their time at La Lumiere.
Our annual event in the fall semester which includes two days of campus activities. The weekend consists of many school traditions, including sporting events, and the ceremonial bonfire in tribute to the seniors, and sporting events.
Each fall, over Family Weekend, La Lumiere hosts a celebration of the senior class that epitomizes our school’s name. Seniors walk together around the lake, each holding their own torch, until they reach a clearing. Upon arrival, the class contributes their individual light to the bonfire as a symbol of their commitment to the larger La Lumiere community.
Our annual three-on-three basketball tournament provides the perfect outlet for teams made up of faculty members and students to come together for an incredible competition.
An evening pep rally in our historic Marsch Gynamsium to kick off the winter season includes skills competitions, dunk contests, dance performances, and the bookstore basketball championship!
The La Lumiere national basketball team and Laker Nation host on the national stage as ESPN and some of the nations top boys high school basketball teams are welcome to the historic La Porte Civic Auditorium.
In the spring, students and faculty prepare dishes to represent their family heritage or traditions. With a menu that includes more than 100 unique recipes from around the world, the Tastes is one of our largest celebrations of community.
This student founded and student organized event collects entries of student produced films that are shown in front of our entire school community.
Each spring, before commencement, the La Lumiere community gathers in the Lakeside Amphitheater to celebrate the graduates. Each senior takes a moment to share how an underclassman impacted them during their time at La Lumiere, and passes on their light (a candle) to that individual.
Each year, the Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior classes take education day trips to explore learning in our local and regional community.
Whether in the Moore House or Field House, our study body and faculty gather to celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas with a formal dinner, each with their own traditions
Nine months after first coming to campus for Orientation, our Freshman class gathers for a day of reflection on their La Lumiere journey thus far as they reach the quartermark of their La Lu experience.
Much is left to surprise, yet the senior class disembarks campus for three days for an experience that is often a highlight of their time at La Lumiere.
The day before commencement, the senior class and their parents gather for a meal in an evening filled with reflective speeches as each advisor shares a final message to their graduating adviser.
In addition to our major academic, athletic, and student life awards, awards are given for excellence in each course, and in the spirit of cultivating scholarship each recipient receives a book hand selected and inscribed by their teacher.
At La Lumiere, celebrating our seniors is not a moment reserved for senior families, this is a school-wide celebration recognizing the more complete versions of themselves that our new graduates have become. The first act of graduates is to walk through a receiving line of La Lumiere’s entire faculty and staff, who they have each encountered and known of their time here.
