Joseph Orenstein, one of LC's top 2009 graduates, was accepted to seven law schools: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, Mercer University, Charleston School of Law, Campbell University, Elon University, and Appalachian School of Law.
He received three full tuition scholarship offers and decided to attend Mercer in Macon, Ga. "My uncle operates a single-man law firm in Macon, and this gives me the opportunity to work with him when I am not studying," Joe said. "I am most definitely looking forward to getting down there and getting my feet wet."
Joe, a senior from Kernersville, N.C., was named LC's 2008-09 Sommerville Scholar, the highest award given by Lynchburg College in recognition of the culmination of a distinguished academic record over the previous three years of study.
"I can't say enough about how honored I am that the school would select me as this year's scholar," he said. "It was the culmination of three and a half years of very hard work and a lot of long nights."
Joe graduated number one in his class at East Forsyth High School in Kernersville, N.C., and has continued that excellence throughout his LC career. A Westover Fellow, he majored in business administration and Spanish. His cumulative GPA is 3.99 and he ranked first among the Westover Honors Program students for each of the past three years. He served as the president and spokesperson of the Westover Honors Program for the past two years.
A large part of his success, he said, comes from his friends and fellow students, as well as teachers and family. "Everybody else around you is so committed to what they do," he said. "In Westover, you're learning how to love to learn."
That intellectual curiosity led him to try classes that didn't necessarily go with his majors, including his favorite: a classic political theory class with Dr. Lorna Dawson. He also took a 400-level investment fundamentals class in which he was the only undergraduate.
Joe has had his sights on law school since high school because law enforcement and justice run in the family. His grandfather was an FBI agent and, as noted, his uncle is a lawyer. In addition to his impressive academic record, Joe spent two summers working in a law office in Winston-Salem, N.C. for a personal injury lawyer.
Joe also has played a valuable role as a research analyst for Dr. Sally Selden's Pew Center on the States Government Performance Project for the past two years, an experience he calls the most influential experience he has had at LC.
He was vice president of the LC Pre-Law Society, vice president of the LC Investment Club, served as a peer tutor in the Modern Language Resource Center, as a member of the LC Educational Policies Committee, and was treasurer of the Student Government Association for two years.
He is an active volunteer in his home community. His academic accomplishments have been recognized through membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Beta Delta (Business), and Phi Sigma Iota (Spanish). Joe also studied abroad in Madrid, Spain.
The Sommerville Scholarship was named for Dr. Richard Clarke Sommerville, a distinguished professor at Lynchburg College for more than 20 years. When he first came to the college in 1928 at age 52, he had already enjoyed careers as a teacher of science, mathematics, and Latin, as a writer of fiction and travel literature, as a sheriff's bookkeeper and jailor, as the president of the Lewisburg (West Virginia) Female Institute and Seminary, and as a professor of ethics, mental philosophy, and French. He arrived at Lynchburg College after short careers at Arkansas College and the University of the South - and after having completed the doctorate in psychology at Columbia University.