Why I Chose College

When I was 16 and beginning to consider potential colleges, one of the things I heard most from admissions officers during information sessions was that most students would change their majors at least once, some twice or more before graduating. Now in my second year of college, I know several friends who changed their program of study from what they initially intended to pursue. I am not among them. From the time I began high school, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in theatre. If I could not be on the stage itself, then I wanted to devote my life to making sure people of all ages and backgrounds could benefit from theatre through outreach. One of my teachers directed me towards the study of communications to make my goal possible.
Though there are many places in the world I would love to experience, I kept coming back to Ireland. My family claims more than half of our heritage from Ireland, and we do not shy away from proclaiming it. And yet I have never even gotten to visit. If I was going to spend a semester living in another country, I wanted the chance to live in the country my family was so proud to have come from. After visiting a study abroad fair hosted by my school and talking to a peer who had just returned from studying in Dublin through IES, I considered their program offerings. The Gaiety School of Acting would not only place me in the location I desire, but the program is a great supplement to the theatre education I have already received at the George Washington University. One thing that attracted me to GW was the variety of courses offered in the theatre department, including acting classes, dramatic literature classes, and technical production classes. However, some classes are only offered on rotating basis, and there is not enough time to be able to take advantage of all the department offers. Furthermore, the department lacks instruction in singing and dance. Attending the Gaiety School of Acting would allow me to hone my acting skills, take courses like ones that interested me at my home school but that might not fit into my
I have found that exposing myself to as many experiences and types of knowledge as possible is vital to helping me grow as a performer. I sought to learn skills such as tumbling, reading music, and mimicking dialects enrich my performances on stage. Since I began performing in middle school, I have gotten the chance to play everything from a 17-year-old cheerleader to a senile old lady. Though most of my experience has been with musicals, I have done everything from the ensemble, characters who mostly spoke and had very few musical solos, characters who required a lot of solo singing but spoke little, and characters who demanded both a lot of speaking and singing. I have played dance-heavy roles and characters who do not dance at all. Some roles were comedic, some were more serious. While at the George Washington University, I have taken a class focused on scene study, which built upon my previous theatre experiences, and got out of my comfort zone by taking classes where I learned pantomime and improvisation;. I am currently taking a class on performing Shakespeare, which is unlike anything I had ever done before, but helpful in building an understanding of managing and negotiating with language. I am on track to graduate with honors in both of majors, maintain an