Theater played a central – you might even say leading– role in Jack McAuliff’s childhood. So did Le Moyne College. Jack jokes that he grew up not just listening to but “dissecting” the work of renowned composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. He traveled around the U.S. and Canada as a highly decorated competitive Irish dancer. He played the saxophone and piano as a middle and high school student. Jack also spent a good deal of time on the Le Moyne campus, where his mother, Kim McAuliff H.A. ’13, P ’24, has worked for more than 25 years. He spent multiple summers on campus taking part in the Gifford Family Theatre’s Summer Arts Institute, which offers conservatory programs for youth in disciplines including theatre, musical theatre and film.
Today Jack is member of the Le Moyne Class of 2024, majoring in theatre arts. However, it was not always obvious that he would return to the campus he spent so much time on as a child. After graduating from Marcellus High School, Jack began pursuing a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at a college in New England. While the training he received there was good and rigorous, he wanted an education that would allow him to grow more well-rounded as an individual. And so, he found his way back to the College.
“Le Moyne had its doors open and I walked in and found out where I was meant to be,” he says.
Today, Jack’s days are filled with “lots of class, lots of clubs, lots of mingling.” He recalls with special appreciation a theology course that he took with Professor Darryl Caterine, Ph.D. He says that it “tore apart his perception of what [he] thought he knew” and invited him to “entertain topics [he] had never considered before.” Looking back, Jack says he is “so much better for it.” Life outside of the classroom is equally stimulating. Jack serves as the managing director of Boot ‘N’ Buskin, the student-run theatre group that produces many of the College’s main-stage shows. He is also a member of the College’s Counsel of Arts Leaders, a board that includes representatives of Le Moyne’s theatre, dance, music and visual art programs whose aim is to support the arts overall on campus by creating opportunities for collaboration and engagement.
Following his graduation, Jack plans to move to New York City. He hopes to perform there and then to return to school to continue his education and earn a master’s degree or a doctorate. His long-term aim is to work in the administrative side of theatre or to lead the performing arts department of a top high school. Until then, he is focusing his energies on making the most of his time at Le Moyne. He urges other transfer students, or prospective transfer students, to do the same.
“The more people you meet, the more intertwined you are, the better it gets,” he says.
This is part of a series of stories that Le Moyne is featuring on its vibrant transfer student community in honor of National Transfer Student Week (Oct. 16-20, 2023). For more information about transferring to Le Moyne, visit the Office of Transfer Admission..