“I’ve learned through theater how to be everyone else other than myself, and by learning how to be everyone else other than yourself, you learn more about who you are.” 

Iris Sande ’25

A Full Plate of Passions

It would be hard to forget Iris Sande’s booming voice as emcee of the Kit Kat Club in the musical Cabaret or the flair with which they portrayed Algeron in The Importance of Being Earnest. Or any number of times Iris captivated the Loomis Chaffee community with spoken-word poetry or written pieces. Then there is Iris’s passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which led to leadership positions in multiple affinity groups. 

Iris is all about the humanities AND math and science, apparent by some of Iris’s senior-year courses, College-Level (CL) Multivariable Calculus, CL Molecular Biology, and CL Microbiology. At the University of Chicago, Iris will concentrate on the sciences.

“It is not often we find a student so deeply interested in the humanities who is also deeply interested in STEM-related fields, but Iris is such a student,” reads a college recommendation.

Iris says that during most of their time at Loomis, they leaned toward pursuing the humanities in college, but they shifted toward math and science this year. “My CL Microbiology and then Molecular Biology courses just blew up my world,” Iris says. “There’s so much going on at a level I cannot see with my eyes but plays such a large and fundamental role in everything that happens in my life — and that is really interesting.”

Iris is always interested — and interesting. Take, for example, their thoughts on how they changed from freshman to senior years. As a freshman, Iris says, they were naive, ambitious, and free. As a senior, calm, involved, and free. “As a freshman everything is new,” Iris says. “I’m trying everything. That’s a bit of naivety and ambition. I don’t know what’s going to be on my plate, so I’ll just put everything on my plate. ... Slowly, slowly, slowly, I came to realize there is only so much room on a plate, so I need to take things off and enjoy what I like the most. And the freeness is there because as a freshman, I don’t know what’s ahead of me, and that allowed me to do everything. As a senior, I’ve been here, know more, and I can do the most in the places that I want to do the most.” 

One of those places is theater.  

“Theater is one of those things that will stick with me forever,” Iris says. “I’ve learned through theater how to be everyone else other than myself, and by learning how to be everyone else other than yourself, you learn more about who you are. You realize, ‘I can connect this part of myself to this character, so what does this part of myself really mean to me?’”

Affinity groups also are important to Iris, who once said, “I feel like everyone needs a place to call home, and it’s really important to me to help make that space as best a home as I can.”

Iris took his leadership skills overseas in the spring of junior year for a semester in London at The School for Ethics and Global Leadership. “The program teaches you how to exist in a world that needs change and to actually learn how to make that change,” Iris says. “The greatest thing I learned was exactly that — yes, I can literally make change. ... It’s possible if you take the time, put in the hours.”

Even with a more manageable plateful of passions, Iris was seemingly everywhere. When asked to name a favorite place on campus, they say, “Can I do it by year?” 

Freshman year that place was the outdoor stage near Chaffee Hall, where Iris made their LC theatrical debut in The Love of Three Oranges. “After that I would go back to that spot or the playground across the street and say, ‘I did that.’ That was bigger than any play I did in middle school, and I did it with amazing actors who were really cool and inspiring. ... I also developed my love of poetry as a freshman and would go there and write.”

Sophomore year Iris’s favorite spot was the Norris Ely Orchard Theater. “Every day after classes, no matter what, I could go there and just rehearse and work on creating a show that I liked, with characters that I liked, and with people that I liked being around. There’s nothing like that,” Iris says.

Junior year the favorite spot was also near Chaffee, where Iris and a friend who was interested in astronomy would look at the night sky and all its changes in the fall and winter. That spring Iris was in London, and a spot by the Thames River carries memories.

Senior year, the top spot was the gap between the Richmond Art Center and the Nichols Center for Theater and Dance, with a vista onto the Meadows. They describe it as nice during the day and peaceful at night.

Four years. Four places (with a bonus spot overseas). That sums up Iris: able and eager to look at things from different perspectives.
 

 

Quick Takes

College: University of Chicago

Clubs/activities/awards: PRISM (People Rising in Support of Multiculturalism), Spectrum (gender-sexuality alliance), BRAVE (an alliance and affinity group for LGBTQIA+ and their allies), theater, The Loom, Writing Studio tutor, Jennie Loomis Prize at Commencement, Morris H. Brown Senior Dance & Theater Arts Prize for theater, Founders Prize, Junior English Award, department honors across five subjects: science, history, mathematics, language, and English.

On Loomis Chaffee: “There is always another spot at a table in the dining hall, someone will hold the door open for you and ask how your day was. There are always little things people will do to make sure you feel welcome in a space. One of the gems of Loomis really is the community.”

Traveling favorite: When Iris was in Morocco on an International Education Program trip during March break senior year, Moroccan tea hit the spot. “I miss the taste, everything about it.”

Three things you could not live without: “A writing utensil of some sort, a very close friend or a friendship that would become close, and — this one is bit abstract but — a breeze on a summer day where the breeze is just cool enough that is balances out [the heat] ... It’s in that space of perfection.”

What ice cream flavor best describes you? Any ice cream flavor you find at a place you go into for the first time and say, ‘I’ve never seen that flavor before.’ It would be that flavor because it is unexpected in a very welcoming way. Most recently I had Earl Grey ice cream, and it was very good. The unexpected flavor is what describes me.”