Lauren Johnston
What did you want to be when you grew up?
For a while, I really wanted to be a veterinarian. Then I thought high school agricultural teacher. So, when I came to WVU, I was an agricultural and extension education major. Then, my sophomore year I changed majors to wildlife and fisheries resources because I decided I wanted to have a different impact on our environment than teaching about it. I became a Davis College student ambassador my junior year. Through working with Renee in that, I discovered a passion for recruitment and talking to high school students. WVU had made such an impact on my life. I felt very at home in the Davis College and I really liked working with students in that capacity. I wanted to help students find their home within WVU like I found mine.
What year in school was your favorite and why?
My favorite year of school had to be my senior year of high school because I was my chapter’s FFA president. I really loved being a part of FFA and 4-H growing up. I grew up on a horse farm, so I grew up showing. I was very involved in FFA and I was the first person in my chapter ever to receive their State Degree and their American Degree. I was also the first person to do an agriscience fair project and present it at the state level. I was able to change and modify a lot of things in my chapter. They still implement those changes seven years later! I really liked making such an impact on my high school my senior year.
What is you learned and never forgot?
I was working for the state DNR in the summer of 2016, and I was at a conference one day. They were talking about how we should treat visitors at the state parks. We were talking about interactions between us and the visitors. They were saying, “You always have to be very nice to everybody because you don’t know what they’re going home to. They’re coming to the park and that might be their only vacation they get all year. So, you have to be really nice to them.” That stuck with me. I’ve kind of modified that throughout my life. Now, I look at people, even when I’m out shopping, and I try to be very, very nice to everybody because you just don’t know what they’re going home to. When I’m interacting with students, I always think I need to be as kind as I can and give them as much information as I can. Who knows what they’re going home to and how much help they have at home researching about the university. You really don’t know if they have that kind of support, so I always try to make every interaction I have with every student very informative and kind.
If you could go back to school, what would you study?
If I could go back to college and study anything, I’d probably try to study animal and nutritional sciences and apply to vet school to become a veterinarian. I think that would be my dream job. Getting through the chemistry and all the math, however, I just know I couldn’t do it. I like working with the students that want to be vets, though.
What's a dream you have?
A dream that I have is for my husband and I to have a lot of land. He can hunt on it. We can ride our four-wheelers on it. Our daughter and our animals can have land to roam and play on like I had when I grew up. We only have three acres right now, but I’d like to have a lot more land.
What did you learn from 2020?
I learned to appreciate how healthy my family and I are. I feel like I definitely took that for granted before. I should appreciate how healthy we all are more. None of us have had Covid. No one in my family has passed away from Covid. No one in my family knows anybody who’s passed away from Covid. In 2020, I had my daughter Emma and she was born so early. For her to make it through, I just have this whole other level of appreciation for people in the medical field and for everything they do, for our health and for Emma’s health, too.
Just for Fun
A book you've always wanted to read: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Most adventurous food you've tasted: Calamari
Favorite band in college: Eric Church
Dogs or cats? Dogs, my golden doodle's name is Ellie Mae