Luc Diaz attended the 2021-2022 Outer Coast Year and is now a student at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Luc is originally from Girdwood, AK, spent stints in Maui, HI; Petersburg, AK; and Anacortes, WA; and found his way to Outer Coast after being homeschooled for nearly his whole education.
“Being homeschooled opened up a lot of really cool things in my life that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. I wouldn’t change it, because I don’t think I’d be where I am now. But I suspect that pretty much everyone who was homeschooled and then goes into higher ed has some degree of imposter syndrome. My biggest hesitation was that higher education is such a big investment of time and money, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do afterwards.”
When Luc arrived at Outer Coast in August 2021, he quickly gravitated towards studying philosophy. He chose to enroll in both of the courses offered by visiting faculty David Egan, Philosophy as a Way of Life (Term One) and Games, Play, and Philosophy (Term Two).
“Outer Coast was the first place I learned about philosophy in depth. Out of all the humanities, philosophy feels the most logical to me. I think it has a lot in common with the sciences, and that crossover is something I have found really interesting.”
In the Spring Semester, Luc enrolled in an ecology class with visiting faculty Caroline Daws. The course was called Intertidal: Making a Home in the Spaces in Between. At the end of the semester, Luc wrote a paper exploring the connections between philosophy and science. Caroline Daws reflected on his final paper, saying, “One of his central arguments was that philosophy and science are inseparable, and in fact rely on similar ways of knowing: questioning, evidence, and moral reasoning. He applied concepts from the philosophy tradition to science, like how science and philosophy are both inherently tied up in questions of value, especially intrinsic and instrumental value.”
Outside of the classroom, Luc spent much of his time helping restore the Alaska Native Brotherhood Cemetery in Sitka. All students at Outer Coast maintain ongoing service commitments with local nonprofits and community members during their time in the program, and Luc devoted his service time to supporting local elder and cemetery restoration expert Shaagunastaa Bob Sam in restoring the ANB Cemetery.
“I went to the cemetery after class about three days a week, and I’d stay for a few hours each day. The main tools I used were a shovel and a big metal pry bar. Sometimes the gravestones were upright but buried by dirt and moss, in which case I’d unbury them. Other graves were entirely fallen over, and righting them could be rather challenging. Some of them I couldn’t fully right, but I did what I could.
The combination of community within Outer Coast and the high degree of self-governance students experience is something you don’t find at many other places. It forces you to learn how to be a good community member. If you can be an asset to the community in a place like Outer Coast, you probably can anywhere.”
Over the course of his year at Outer Coast, Luc gained clarity and confidence about his next steps and decided to pursue college after leaving Sitka.
“I didn’t have much of a plan before coming to Outer Coast, and I was not necessarily planning to go to college. But Outer Coast made me feel like learning is worth it, just for its own sake, and to figure out what I want to do afterwards. I really liked being able to have actual, serious academic discussions. Going to college seemed like the most obvious way to keep doing that. If I hadn’t gone to Outer Coast, there’s a very good chance I wouldn’t be at St. John’s. I probably wouldn’t have gone into higher education at all.
Luc applied to several postsecondary institutions while at Outer Coast and decided to attend St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is now in his first year there, where he is studying a full range of humanities and sciences. Though he’s not sure exactly what he’ll do after graduating, he’s thinking about pursuing medicine or medical research. This summer, he’ll be working as a biomedical research intern at City of Hope in Los Angeles.
Even after leaving Sitka, Luc has continued to contribute to the Outer Coast community. He currently serves in the Alumni Trustee position on the Outer Coast Board of Trustees.
