Surviving the freshman year: Just go to class

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Lauren Cartwright (Photo by Sean Collins-Smith)

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By Sean Collins-Smith
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Published: October 10, 2008

Lauren Cartwright knows that college is unforgiving to students who are unprepared.

“I don’t skip class or slack off,” said the 19 year-old theatre student at John Tyler Community College. “I go to school, leave school, go to work. Then I go home.”

Cartwright has always kept her eyes on the prize since her early high school days. Graduating in the upper half of her senior class at Hermitage High School in Henrico County and currently maintaining a 3.5 GPA in college, she has always realized the importance of staying on track.

With a full load of four classes and a job that keeps her working up to 20 hours a week, Cartwright has to cope with a schedule all too common among college students. But unlike many other students, she has no reservations about what she wants to do with her life, and where she wants to be in the long run.

“I worked on seven plays at my high school,” said Cartwright. “Four musicals and three fall plays. You never get over the nerves. But I love acting, I love bringing some part of me to each different character. In a sense I get to be a new person in every play, but I’m still Lauren.”

Maturity has helped her greatly along the way. Upon her graduation from Hermitage, Cartwright – whose idols are the director Baz Luhrman and the actress Marilyn Monroe – applied to Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Theatre, only to be rejected. Hurt but resilient, she applied to John Tyler, knowing that she needed to get her education, even if it wasn’t at her first choice.

“I was disappointed, but things happen for a reason,” said Cartwright. “It wasn’t my time. It doesn’t mean I was bad at my audition. It just means that I have a lot to learn.”

Cartwright has performed three monologues at John Tyler – two in the play “Laughing Wild” and one in “Uncle Vanya.” Amidst having to memorize her lines for these performances, doing work for all her other classes and being employed, she knew that the atmosphere would be different than the highly structured days of high school.

“I like college a lot more than high school, the freedom it gives you,” she said. “But at the same time I realize that just because you’re not forced to go to class doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go. If you’re treated like an adult, you should act like one. To any upcoming freshmen I’d say: go to class. Go to all of them.”

Cartwright has never missed a class in her two semesters at John Tyler. She studies for about two hours a night, three if she has an exam. And she always puts work first, no matter what comes up.

“She does her studies, she’s committed to doing well,” said her father Tim Cartwright. “She was like that with high school. She always tried. What more can you ask for from a daughter?”

Her mother agrees.

“Lauren has grown up to be a very well-rounded individual,” said Jodi Cartwright. “She’s always exploring new things, but she puts her studies first, in front of her other extracurricular activities.”

And Lauren Cartwright knows exactly what comes next.

“When I finish up here at John Tyler, I want to transfer to either Longwood or JMU,” she said. “After that I’m going overseas to get my master’s degree. I want to end up in movies, in Hollywood.”