BECKLEY, W.Va. — Over the next four years, Lauren Linn will have the opportunity to experience the best educational opportunities two of the South’s top universities have to offer.

Though Linn, the 2007 Westside High School valedictorian, will enroll at Duke University, as a recipient of the unique Robertson Scholarship, she will also attend classes at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just a 20-minute drive down “Tobacco Road.”

Created in 2000, the Robertson Scholarship, valued at $160,000, is awarded to 36 students, half of which attend Duke and half UNC.

Robertson Scholars are automatically enrolled at both institutions and have the opportunity to take classes from their “sister school.” During the second semester of their sophomore years, the scholars “swap places,” as Duke students move into housing at UNC and vice versa.

Although she applied to other schools as well, Linn says she had been interested in attending Duke since elementary school and made up her mind it was the place for her after attending a pre-college program which allowed her to take undergraduate courses with Duke students during the summer of 2006.

“I wanted to stay in the South and I felt Duke was one of the best schools in the South,” said Linn, who plans to major in political science and public policy. “After spending time there, I knew I really wanted to go there. It’s a great school with a really small atmosphere.”

Because of her decision to set her sights on admission into one of the country’s top universities, Linn says she realized she had to work extra hard.

In an effort to set herself apart from other applicants, Linn began taking Advanced Placement courses her sophomore year, but because Westside did not offer AP classes, Linn was forced to take classes online.

“While other students were taking regular classes, I was in the library three hours a day,” she said.

Because of student interest, however, Westside began offering AP classes during Linn’s senior year, allowing her to take two of her seven AP credits in a classroom setting.

Although Linn says she sometimes worried about making a “B” in one of the advanced courses, which could possibly drop her from her class ranking, she says she stuck with it because, during college visits, she was told her grade point average was not the most important thing.

“The first thing they look at is the rigor of the classes,” she said. “Duke requires a very hard schedule.”

Linn says getting through her difficult curriculum was not easy, and says her faith was the main reason she was able to succeed.

“There were times when I was very frustrated,” she said. “It took a lot of prayer to get through it all.”

Linn says education has always been among her top priorities and though her mother Pam is a teacher at Oceana Middle School and father Dane, a former teacher and principal, is the Best Education Policy Director for the National Governor’s Association in Washington, D.C., Linn says they did not push her for academic success.

“I’m a perfectionist,” she said. “I have to do everything right. I always wanted to do a little more than everyone else was doing, and I knew I had to to get into Duke.”

On Aug. 13, Linn and the other scholars will attend a weeklong retreat before the Aug. 20 start of the semester.

Linn, who already knows her roommate, says, though she is nervous, she looks forward to getting her unique collegiate career under way.

“I’m extremely honored (to receive the scholarship),” she said. “I’m very excited.”



Michelle James writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.