Caroline Holmes

Hello! My name is Caroline Holmes, and I am a graduate of Leander High School class of 2019. I am currently taking a gap year before attending Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy. I am also in the process of applying to the Directing BFA program at CMU as my ultimate career goal is to become a stage director. Though both programs can serve my goals, I am seeking to evaluate all of my options. 

I chose to defer matriculation to CMU in order to take necessary time to prioritize my physical and mental health before embarking on the next stage of my life. I am so grateful to be able to take this time for myself; I have been able to develop new skills and healthy habits that leave me better prepared for college and fully rejuvenated and energized to dive in head first! During this time, I have also been able to save necessary funds for college by nannying two lovely boys (8 and 12) after school, teaching 2-year-olds at a local preschool twice a week, and performing and choreographing for various Austin-area theatre companies. 

I first started performing at the age of 6, and since then I have been absolutely in love with theatre in all of its facets. Growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin, I began taking classical ballet classes at the Makaroff School of Ballet at age 10, continuing through age 16 and spending 3 years dancing en pointe. I began private voice lessons at age 13 and have competed in both classical and musical theatre voice competitions at the state, regional, and national levels, most notably being recognized as a semi-finalist for the national Hal Leonard Musical Theatre voice competition in 2018, taking 3rd place in the 2018 NATS Texoma Musical Theatre competition, and taking 5th place as a finalist in the 2018 NATS Texoma Classical voice competition. I moved from Wisconsin to the Austin, Texas area in 2017, and today I study with Julliard graduate, Michelle Haché. After moving to Texas, I became a member of the Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards Select Ensemble and won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie. I continue to search for ways to self-improve and had the privilege of attending the Carnegie Mellon University Pre-College Program for Musical Theatre the summer of 2018 where I worked with CMU faculty for a total of six weeks on campus, with a curriculum which mirrored the first semester of their Musical Theatre BFA program: classes in acting, singing, jazz, ballet, dramatic literature, and directing. Here, I also had the opportunity to join BOAL, a social issue theatre troupe which creates image theatre pieces relevant to current global issues based on the theories of Augusto Boal. It was here that I was introduced to professors Wendy Aarons and Megan Monaghan Rivas and fell in love with the Dramaturgy and Directing programs. 

Academically, I am a high achieving student. I was recently awarded my International Baccalaureate Diploma. As a curious and intrinsically motivated student, I seek to guide my own learning through creative, in-depth projects and innovative research. Through IB I achieved successful exam scores in all of my courses, and I am most proud of my work in my higher level courses: English Language and Literature, History of the Americas, French V, and Theatre. I am extremely passionate about the French language, having taken six years of classes and spending two weeks abroad on a school-sponsored foreign exchange trip in 2016. I hope to achieve fluency in college. I also love to write creatively, and learn about history, particularly through the lens of the human experience. These are two subjects which I feel foster my love of theatre; after all, one must know about the world in order to reflect it through art. In my IB Theatre class, I have had the awesome opportunity of exploring theatre through an academic lens by researching historically significant plays and world theatre traditions throughout time, analyzing and recreating the teachings of theatre theorists, and devising collaborative and individual creative performances. In this intellectual discovery of my art form, I have found ultimate satisfaction in creation and knowledge integrating in perfect harmony to develop thought-provoking art. 

Throughout my life, I have developed a deep passion for service and social change. I began volunteering at community organizations at the age of 10, starting at the Hearthstone Historic House as a result of my fascination with history. Soon enough, I was devoted to interacting with others in meaningful and giving ways and joined several other service groups as a volunteer, including the Paper Discovery Center, the Building for Kids, the Appleton Youth Education Initiative Executive Board, the Student Leadership Program, Homeless Connections, and various service events through my church. At school, I founded the Valley New School Social Justice Group in 2016, and the LHS branch of the French Honors Society in 2017 which now hosts the Leander High School Global Week to encourage increased global awareness among students through education and collaborative, school-wide activities. Additionally, I, along with three other students, founded the LHS IB Mentorship Program, which pairs IB Seniors with Juniors as mentors and mentees to provide a support system for students who tend to overwork themselves academically and emotionally. Most dear to my heart, I became secretary of the Kenya Partnership Program and Student Scholarship Program at First United Church of Christ in Appleton, where I worked with other church members to collect donations and garner financial sponsorship for students seeking secondary and higher education in the Kerio Valley of Kenya. Ultimately, I have found that my love of service has combined with my passion for theatre and social change, and I feel that it is my calling to use theatre to speak for the voiceless, to bring people together across social boundaries, and to create change in the world for the better, however small.