Lachlan Pepersack Senior Spotlight

Ella Berman '25

You are rarely seen without coffee in the morning. Describe your perfect cup of coffee.

I feel like it depends on the situation. The day-to-day has got to be drip, about three-quarters black coffee and one-quarter skim milk. That’s pretty much just what my mom drinks, so that's what I adopted. And then, if I want a nice, distinguished, cup of coffee, I do espresso, but I don’t have an espresso machine at my house so that's more of a treat.

You’ve played soccer all four years of high school, and this year you were a senior captain. What has been your favorite soccer memory at Masterman?

Obviously, I would say winning the public league championship. But I really think that looking back, the ability to play as a team and become friends with these people, who I would have never interacted with, was so nice. So I think the whole experience of playing on a team is really my favorite memory.

Favorite soccer bus song?

"La Mamá de la Mamá"

You started playing lacrosse in high school after never playing before. Now the team has won the pub, and is looking for a repeat this year. How did you pick up this new sport so quickly and was that hard?

Not many people know this, but I did pass a little bit with my father when I was younger, so I got onto the team with a little bit of stick skills. Aside from that, I really think a lot of soccer carries over, a lot of the spacial awareness and understanding where you should be. In the public league, I don’t lie, it’s a pretty low bar for playing. If you know where you should be and you play with heart, you will do well.

Outside of soccer and lacrosse, you spend a lot of time at the gym. If you could only listen to one song at the gym for the rest of your life, what song would you choose?

One song? I don’t know if I want to go some degenerate techno song, or like a genuinely good song. There was a period of time that I would say "Zombies." Yeah, I’ll say "Zombies."

You are very close with Mr. Gilken. How did this relationship come about and what does it mean to you?

For Penn, you have to write a thank-you letter to someone that helped you. I wrote my letter to Gilken, and what I said in it pretty much answers this question. He has become a father figure in these four years, and to be honest, he is the adult male in my life that I look up to and rely on for the majority of issues I have. He’s helped me through a lot of bad and stressful times. He’s seen me through my ups and downs and I really respect him for that. I’m really grateful.

What Star Wars character is Mr. Gilken and why?

There’s a funny story behind this. He would consider himself Yoda because he’s old and wise—that’s what he says. He called Seb Anakin and me Luke. We have a whole triad.

As Voices media editor, mock election media staff, spirit week head of video, NHD documentary producer, and end-of-year video maker, you are very involved in photography and media here at Masterman. What is the longest you’ve ever spent on a video?

NHD. I always look at a project and I’m like, “Wow, this could be a lot better if I put in an extra 20 hours,” but I never come around to doing that. It’s definitely NHD, also on NHD I was using a MacBook, so the hardware could not keep up. Now that I’m using a PC, it’s a much easier workflow. For this upcoming senior video, I really want to give it 100%, I want to click upload on that video thinking that I couldn't have done a single thing better.

What do you think is the best platform to edit media? I’ve heard you have a strong opinion on this topic.

I am very blessed with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. There is a barrier to entry, it’s industry standard, but I think it is by far the best.

You are attending Penn next year, which is known as the “party Ivy.” I know you place a large emphasis on balancing work and fun in your life. What’s your game plan to continue this balance in college and what advice do you have for others looking to do the same?

The key to work life balance is to enjoy both of them. Work shouldn’t be something where it’s like, I have to work so I will allow myself to have fun. I think working is a separate part of me, of what I enjoy doing, and who I am as a person. I think that is part of the reason I am going to Penn, the people there agree. I have heard Penn is a party school, I didn’t really realize how much of a party school it was until I heard people talk about it. I’m looking forward to it. I might rush, I might not. I had an uncle who was a fart there, so maybe he can get me some connections you never know. I’m also probably going to play club soccer next year, so if that interferes, we will see what happens. At the end of the day, and this goes all the way up to your actual job, work doesn’t have to be a live to work midwest, it can be fun as well.

What ever happened to the Howard Shore club?

Good question. Here’s the honest answer. In 10th grade, it was like, “I’m friends with Sebastian Goldstien, I’m gonna go.” The seniors last year wanted a place to hang out and the people who liked that group would show up. Me and Gabe Lopata were the only two who actually tried to do anything through the lenses of the original idea of the club, which was like a legitimate musical analysis club. Howard Shore gets a lot of hate about how we just play poker and watch movies, which is what it did devolve to last year, but the original idea was to sit down, watch a clip of a movie, and thoroughly analyze how the score affects the themes and feelings in the movie. This year, I didn’t think there would be enough movement for the club to run and I wanted to give myself more free time. No other juniors wanted to take a leadership role, and also the whole A/B schedule complicated things.

As Co-President of Peer Counseling, you have been involved with the middle schoolers at Masterman. Do you have any words of advice for them, or any student, as they enter Masterman High School?

Yes, the environment can be toxic. Yes, it can feel very isolating. Everyone will tell you, “oh, I feel the same way,” and I know that doesn't help. The way I deal with this and how I push myself to strive is to enjoy the Masterman environment as it is, to step back and realize that there are people who have different values than me and those people exceed those values more than me. So if they put their head down and work, they will get a better grade than me, if they are really good athletes and put in the work during the offseason, they will be better athletes than me. I can only be as good as I want to be. Because I know those people will be better, I can use that as encouragement to push myself to be better as well instead of comparing myself. It took me seven years here to realize that, but I think that's really helped me. To sum it up, use the environment but don’t be consumed by it. It sounds simple, but it’s hard.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I have a very non-urban side, I’m starting to enjoy nature more. I have a side of me that really enjoys benign on the water. Throughout the summer I surf for almost a month down in Ocean City. I also like to sail in regattas, on Lasers primary. I just got my scuba diving certification this year. I think being able to do these, not extreme, but boarline extreme activities while co-existing with the environment, especially water, is so incredibly fun. I really think that has allowed me to appreciate the world a lot more.

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