Pacifica Stories

Roman Lenz is a current Pacifica junior, who has given this community as much as he’s gotten out of it. The list of activities that Roman is involved in on campus goes on and on: he’s the Admissions Prefect, senior writer and managing editor for the Wolf Post (our school newspaper), a member of our improv troupe Most Improv(ed), the National Honors Society secretary, and has stage managed/acted in several PACARTS productions. However, despite having his hand in so many extracurriculars, his main focus at Pacifica is in STEM. Roman is the Drone and Hydrogen Car team lead, STEM Scholars co-president, and resident STEM expert around campus. The Hydrogen Car Team is especially important to him; Roman helped revive and recruit members for the team last year alongside now-alumnus Michael Belachew and Dr. “Doc” Sumida.

“My biggest goal with this club, the upcoming drone team, and the STEM Scholars organization is to remove barriers to entry and to create as many opportunities as possible for the STEM community at Pacifica, especially for more technical STEM skills like 3D printing, as well as helping to organize proper long-term engineering projects.”

He is already making headway on these goals—the Pacifica Drone Team hosted their first Aerial Drone Workshop this past weekend which was open to other schools in the western region. The wide range of programs that Roman is involved in is what he loves most about Pacifica. He believes that these programs tie in very well with Pacifica’s community, faculty, and academics. Roman loves that he is able to not only continue building up the STEM program, but also be a part of what he calls “one of the strongest communities at Pacifica,” our PACARTS program.

While STEM is certainly his area of expertise, Roman enjoys his other classes at Pacifica as well. In fact, his favorite class thus far has been AP European History with Mr. Comer.

“This class was my favorite largely thanks to Mr. Comer, who is an absolutely phenomenal teacher, and because this class truly taught me to be a better student,” says Roman. “The work was hard, but when I think back to when I got a 1 or 2 out of 6 on my first long essay, and how much I’ve improved since then, I know that the lessons have made me a much stronger writer, student, and thinker.”

In addition to becoming a better student through challenging classes and supportive teachers, Roman has also gained a great sense of confidence and leadership at Pacifica. He says that he has jumped at opportunities to lead and become involved in activities he never would have thought to join (such as the Improv Club) without the collective encouragement from his Pacifica faculty and peers. Looking back, Roman knows that he ended up in the right place; however, he didn’t begin his high school journey as a Seawolf. During the pandemic, Roman researched high schools on his own and ended up choosing a different school—but it wasn’t the right fit.

“I came to Pacifica in the second semester of my freshman year, and today I am infinitely glad that I did; this school has been nothing but amazing. I deeply respect Pacifica’s teaching philosophy, and became an ambassador and admissions prefect to help prospective students see what I had missed.” 

Roman has significant plans for his future, which include studying aeronautics, astronautics, and calculus. (“Rocket science can’t be all that hard, right?”) However, he remains open to seeing what the future holds for him, and knows that he is building a strong foundation for his life at Pacifica.