Lucas Strunc

After spending the night on campus, the Class of 2019 funneled into the Carol Dauwe Fine Arts Center for the Annual Senior Sendoff Assembly. With only a few hours of sleep, the students showed no signs of exhaustion and were visibly excited to watch their senior video. The video is a yearly tradition at Roger Bacon -- mostly consisting of goodbyes from faculty and staff and a slideshow of pictures set to music from all four years. This year’s video was that and so much more, thanks in large part to our Face of RB, Lucas Strunc ’20.

Student Senate is charged with planning the Senior Sendoff Assembly and video. When it came time to create the video, the senators looked to a classmate outside their organization. Lucas is well known for making videos. Even though the year was coming to an end and exams were rearing their ugly head, Lucas pitched in and helped create what many described as the best senior video they’ve seen. Senator Aaliyah Dodson said “Lucas is absolutely an amazing person and great to work with. He is an extremely hard worker, who took on a huge project with me even though he didn’t have to. He helped due to pure kindness.” This isn’t the first time Lucas used his talent to help the school. He captured what it was like be on the mission trip to Jamaica, created a video for the Advancement Office’s Annual Donor Reception, and helped the Admissions Office promote Open House.

Making videos is fun for Lucas, but he is definitely known for more on campus. An Assisi Scholar, Lucas also runs track, serves on the Community Outreach Board, and was selected to be a Senior Leader. Service and giving back to the community give Lucas a lot of pride. "Service plays a big role in my life -- it is spiritually important and is the biggest thing I do on campus.” As an Outreach Board member, he was tasked with running Shantytown, which went through a complete overhaul this year. Lucas gives a lot of credit to Outreach Director, Fr. Roger Lopez OFM, for its success and helping him not only grow as a leader but helping him understand the issues of poverty and homelessness. When asked about Lucas, Fr. Roger said, “The Franciscan value of contemplation centers on carving out time to allow God to rush in and speak with a person. Lucas embodies this value and has a contemplative spirit. By stopping and carving out mental time, God rushes in and opens Lucas to ponder questions of meaning, value, purpose, cause, and solution. These are invaluable questions in the world of service. And it is in this world that Lucas seeks to discover and change for the good of God’s people.”

Lucas is definitely coming into his own as a leader and is looking forward to senior year. As a Senior Leader, he will help run Freshman Orientation and guide 5-6 students throughout the year as they join the Roger Bacon family. Asked what advice he would give to his freshman self, Lucas replied; “Take more chances in all aspects of life -- socially and academically. Learn to push though discomfort.” That is exactly what he wants to do this summer when he plans to go skydiving. His mom, however, still has a bit of discomfort to push though before getting on board with the idea.

Roger Bacon is made up of many faces, different faces. We hope to showcase as wide a range of our Spartans as possible. If you would like to nominate a Spartan, past or present, to be featured as a Face of RB please click here.