In August 2014, senior Amy Turlington prepared to start the online application process for her top list of prefered colleges using the Common App website. With some occasional advice from her mom, who was an English major in college, Turlington began work on essays for college admissions and possible scholarships.
Turlington is the youngest of six Turlington siblings who have attended West. Every year for the past 20 years there has been at least one Turlington sibling at West, beginning with Heidi in 1995 and followed by Mark, Chris, Chelsea and Michael.
“I am the youngest of six siblings who have all attended West. My sister Heidi was third in her class and Mark and Chris were salutatorians of their class,” Turlington said. “Chelsea was the top scholar of the 2009 class and Michael was the top scholar of the 2012 class.”
Recently Turlington was named one of the four top scholars of the Class of 2015 and will speak at the graduation ceremony on June 12. She is also a N.C. Scholar and a member of the Honor Block. Turlington applied to Gardner-Webb, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Berry College, Furman University, Elon University and UNC-Asheville.
Turlington was accepted to all of these schools, but she chose Gardner-Webb because school officials offered her a full-tuition scholarship.
“The secret to success is making yourself get started on work early and not procrastinating,” Turlington said. “A lot of my success comes from knowing what to do and when. So taking extra AP classes and managing it well really helped me.”
Although an incredible amount of Turlington’s time went into her efforts toward her academic success, she also participated in extracurricular activities.
“I ran winter and spring track and cross country, and I played basketball during my freshman and sophomore year before switching to winter track junior year,” Turlington said. “With also taking orchestra, I feel like having extracurricular activities helps you with your time management even though you have less time. Running is my outlet for stress, so if I’m stressed I put it into my running, and it definitely helps.”
Turlington has taken nine Advanced Placement classes on her way to reaching a number of personal goals.
“Getting the full-tuition scholarship was definitely the most rewarding accomplishment I’ve had and helping to pay most of my way to college,” Turlington said. “Next year I pretty much have a full-ride with grants and small scholarships combined, so it feels really rewarding to be able to say that I earned my way to college.”
Being the last of the Turlington siblings at West as a freshman and graduate as a top scholar, Turlington looks forward to the years to come as a college student at Gardner-Webb University.
By Kayla Petri
