Getting to know our House Captains: Nico Cacayorin, Lacordaire

Hello, I am Nico Cacayorin and I am the Lacordaire House Captain for 2021. I am currently very active in the music program at school playing the saxophone in a ton of bands and ensembles. I am in Year 11 and enjoy studying a variety of subjects ranging from English Lit and Philosophy to Specialist Maths and Maths Methods. My personal goal for this year is to survive the rather extreme workload I’m going through this year (3/4 Stage 2 subjects!) and get a pretty good grade in all of them.

One of my goals as Lacordaire’s House Captain is to maximise participation in events such as house sports tournaments, the swimming carnival, and the athletics carnival. Another goal and intention of mine is to lead, motivate and inspire others to be the best people they can be in our school community and to further strengthen the bonds that we have with one another as Lacordaire and Burke students. I hope that throughout my tenure as House Captain in 2021, all the students in our school community can thrive in all areas of life, and not just school.

Over the years, being in Lacordaire House has brought so much to me as a person, from the development of relationships with past seniors to the mentoring of younger ones as someone they look up to. I wanted to give back positively to those who did the same to me, and that was my main motivation for becoming House Captain.

What I guess separates our House from the rest is the unity that we all have as a collective. In my eyes, it seems that both Lacordaire and Burke are welcoming to everyone regardless of what house they are in. It’s like that sense of comfort and trust emanates from everyone. This is shown especially in our achievement of House spirit awards and recognition. I would say we are a well-rounded House who does their best in all aspects of school life – academically, athletically and in almsgiving.

My personal Blackfriars philosophy is that ‘everyone is a leader’. This proud ideal of mine derives from what I believe it means to be a Blackfriars student. As a Dominican school, we strive to follow the Four Dominican Pillars – Prayer, Study, Community and Service. When we follow these values, we are naturally driven to perform acts of leadership, whether it be simply bringing people closer together or initiating acts of service. I hope that my leadership inspires others to realise their own potential and lead future students and ‘leaders’ to come.