Chelsea Church: JMU-bound!

I recently found out that I got accepted to my dream school, James Madison University. Nothing excites me more than knowing that I will be starting a new chapter in my life in the fall of 2015. I cannot wait to meet new people, learn new things and find out exactly what my calling in life is.

I always dreamed of attending JMU since I was little. At first it was because purple is my favorite color, and what person would not want to be surrounded by their favorite color all day? As I grew older I gained actual reasons for wanting to go to JMU.  My mother is a JMU alum, and she always talks about how much she loved it and how it has changed since she attended. My sister is also currently enrolled there and loves it just as much as my mom did. Whenever I go to visit my sister, I always have a great time and just really enjoy breathing in that Duke air and being in such a positive, fun atmosphere.

Aside from the campus being a fun place to hang out and make new friends, I am also very interested in taking classes in a field of study I love. I will be majoring in communications in hopes to be a famous news anchor one day. JMU has an excellent program for their communications students. They are presented with many opportunities to practice for their career by working with the JMU news station. I was at a JMU football game and saw a student interviewing one of the players on the big screen. I thought that was so cool, and that is when I knew I wanted to go there and and study communications and broadcasting.

Although JMU was really the only school I wanted to go to, I did not want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I divided them between two. I also applied to Virginia Tech. I really loved the campus when I toured and thought I could see myself there as well. I will not know whether I got accepted to Tech or not until spring, but I have a feeling that I will choose JMU regardless. It just feels like home to me whenever I am there. I cannot wait to be a part of the James Madison family.

Chelsea Church is a senior at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton, Va. She is serving a mentorship this semester with Augusta Free Press.