Courtesy: Kacie Lynch

While most seniors spent their spring semester on campus, senior Kacie Lynch spent most of her time in Los Angeles working on her acting career.

After a long semester of work, most students are looking forward to getting out of school for summer and being done with it all.  But one student is eagerly putting the finishing touches on her senior year.   Kacie Lynch spent most of this semester working as an actress in Los Angeles and recently came back to graduate with the rest of her class.

“I left at the end of January to go film and independent film and I did pilots for Showtime and HBO,” Lynch said. “I was out in LA doing acting stuff and I came back a few weeks ago because I had to film some commercials for Hasbro toy company and I’ll be able to graduate while I’m here.”

Lynch, despite her busy work schedule and time away from school, has worked around her circumstances and will graduate on time.

“I’ve already gotten credits online for all of my classes and courses and I didn’t want to graduate online, I wanted to graduate at Lovejoy with all my friends and walk the stage,” Lynch said.

Online credit was something that Lynch had to work out with the school so she could accommodate her hectic life.

“I got all my credits done at school first semester, and once I left I tried to do all my work with just Lovejoy, but it was hard to not be at the school to do the work, so I got online credit instead,” Lynch said.

By taking online courses, Lynch even completed two AP courses and exams.

“I got to do my AP English and AP Statistics and I got all that done and actually took the AP test online so I didn’t have to take them when I got back,” she said.

Despite the added ease she gained from being able to take online courses, they came with their own unique set of difficulties.

“You would think it would be easier because you’re on your own and you can look everything up on your own time,” Lynch said.  “But you still have a teacher who grades your work and you have to work extra hard because there’s nobody there in person to show you what you’re doing wrong or right.”

In addition to graduating, Lynch also presented her senior project, which she has been working on during her semester away.

“My senior project is a short film about my filming experiences in LA,” Lynch said. “I called it ‘A Day in the Life of an Actor’ just to give people an idea of what it’s like to be on the sets. I had to be secretive because it was all closed sets where you’re not allowed to have any publicity or filming. I had to tell them ‘this is for my school, I promise.’”

Even though leaving for a semester had its challenges, Lynch believes it was a valuable experience.

“I think it was really worth it because throughout high school I’ve gone back and forth from here to LA, but this time it was for a much longer time,” Lynch said.  “It was harder because I missed my family and the school, which is really my comfort zone, but it gave me a good taste of what the real world will be like once I graduate.”