Ingrid Namala ‘27
Every dorm on campus calls itself a family, but for Lila Mallon ‘26, that term is literal. Her goal before she graduates is simple: “to help as many people as [she] possibly can”. For her, that was in the classroom, in the dorms, and especially around the fire pit with her guitar.
Lila is everywhere on campus. She manages varsity field hockey, plays JV hockey– the “best team of all time”, captains JV lacrosse, and serves as a dorm prefect in Sculley Oak. Her favorite place on campus isn’t a classroom or quad or even the dining hall: it’s the rink during JV puck season. For Lila, being a captain on JV lacrosse and a four-year team member on JV puck is not just about playing; it’s about giving younger players the space to belong. The same is true in Sculley Oak, where she has served as a prefect for two years straight, where being a prefect means being available and ready to help.
When you ask Lila about her favorite class, she doesn’t list something generic. She points straight to “Death, Dying, and the Afterlife” with Dr. Erickson from her sophomore year. She describes the course as “unique and underappreciated”, and highlights the course’s interesting cross-cultural analysis of death. That way of thinking, looking at how different communities understand the same experience, matches the way she moves through school. She’s drawn to Greek and Classics for the same reason: not just mythology, but looking at the way old stories still explain what people care about now. That curiosity prompted her to represent St. Mark’s on a global scale, as she spent five weeks of this past summer in Australia and is heading to Greece on a classics trip during Lion Term. Meeting new people, hearing how they live, and getting out of her normal routine matter to her.
Lila Mallon ‘26 petting a kangaroo on a St. Mark’s global trip to Australia
Some seniors leave their mark in a game or on a stage. Lila leaves hers in moments that sound ordinary until you’re in them. One of these moments was a dorm bonding night for the III form girls’ dorms, where everyone gathered around the campfire with s’mores and sang along while Lila played the guitar. It wasn’t about performing; it was about everyone being there together, talking, laughing, and relaxing. That’s the kind of environment she helps create. When she talks about what she likes about the community at St. Mark’s, she says “the vibes.” She likes that all the grades are friends with each other, and that you can end up close with people you never share a class with, like Lily Davidson ‘28 and Lizzy Brown ‘28 in her case. She loves that there’s always a faculty member to talk to– “shoutout Mrs. Vachris and the Daveys.”
Lila wants to leave knowing that she made spaces easier to exist in, whether that was on weekend trips, in the dorm, or around a fire with a guitar. When she graduates, the St. Mark’s community will remember her not just for what she did but for how it felt to be around her.