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Lauren Henson '11: "Right away, I loved how the R-MC community wanted me to be here." |
In her senior year of high school,
Lauren Henson ’11 toured the Randolph-Macon campus and everything fell into place. “I visited R-MC on Scholarship Day and my interviewer was a Latin professor—I now know it was Dr. Daniel McCaffrey—and was immediately put at ease. In addition, I earned enough
scholarship money to help out with finances,” says Henson, who is paying for her college career on her own. “I just had a good feeling about coming here. I liked the class sizes and the close-knit community, and the school is only 45 miles from home, which is a big plus!”
Henson felt immediately at home at Randolph-Macon. “Right away, I loved how the R-MC community wanted me to be here,” she says. “Anthony Ambrogi (
admissions) wrote a little note on my admissions packet saying how impressed he was with my high school transcript, including my Latin classes. I was awed that he would take the time to do that and my friends—who attend larger schools—couldn’t believe it either.”
To read more Student Experience stories, click here.Henson says she’s always been in love with
history. “Namely the American Civil War, because I grew up in Virginia," she says. A native of Spotsylvania County, Henson’s hometown is bordered by the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg battlefields. “My grandmother would take me to local monuments as a child, and
Gone with the Wind was my favorite movie,” says Henson. “I remember being fussed at in middle school for reading the novel during math class while waiting for other students to finish class work!”
Majoring in history seemed a logical choice for Henson, but what made her decide on a Latin major as well? “That was motivated namely by the fantastic
Classics Department at R-MC,” says Henson. “I hadn’t planned on taking any Latin, having placed out of the language requirement through testing, but Dr. Greg Daugherty suggested I take an upper-level Latin course during my first semester. I decided to minor in classics and then changed it to a major. My deepened appreciation of Latin rests solely on the persuasive techniques of Drs. Daugherty and McCaffrey!”
The Classics Department hosts a tea every Friday afternoon for Latin and classics majors and minors, something Henson thoroughly enjoys. “It’s the grown-up version of high-school Latin Club, and we socialize, drink hot tea and eat lots of goodies—bread and olive oil, scones, pie, fruit. We just started watching HBO's
Rome on DVD, an episode every Friday, and we enjoy discussing classics,” she says.
Henson is also an active member of R-MC’s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IV) organization. “My friends play important roles on the leadership team for IV, so I attend both large- and small-group functions to support them as well as interact with people of faith,” says Henson. “Attending the informal meetings brings a breath of fresh air to each week and helps us renew our faith.”
In 2008, Henson participated in the college’s Research Day in conjunction with the
First-Year Experience (FYE) course
Coming to Life, taught by Drs. John Rabung (
computer science) and Jim Foster (
biology). “I was in a group with two of my classmates,” says Henson. “We combined principles of biology and computer science in order to model the flow of the bicoid gradient throughout the Drosophila melanogaster embryo.” She explains: “Basically, we studied the development of the front end of the egg of a fly!”
Henson and her classmates presented their findings during Research Day, a campus-wide event that represents the culmination of student research efforts. First-year students, all of whom participate in the FYE program, have the opportunity to create meaningful culminating projects that reflect their year-long, integrated academic experience.
Henson has received several awards during her career at R-MC. In 2008 she received the Robert E. Jones Scholarship awarded for Latin/Classics Major and she also received the R-MC Union Bank and Trust Scholarship.
The future is brimming with possibilities for Henson. “After graduation, I’d love to rent an apartment in Richmond with my best friend, take some graduate school classes at night to get my master’s degree and work for the state or federal government.”
Carpe diem.
For information about R-MC’s history department, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/academics/history.aspx For information on R-MC’s classics department, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/Academics/classics.aspx For information on R-MC’s First-Year Experience program, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/why-rmc/FYE.aspx For more R-MC student profiles, visit http://www.rmc.edu/why-rmc/students.aspx.
For more information about the breadth of programs and opportunities available at Randolph-Macon, contact our Admissions Office at (800) 888-1762 or at admissions@rmc.edu