For this week’s campus celebrity, the fall semester of her senior year consisted of a busy schedule, juggling school, dance team and job hunting. Luckily, as the second semester of Lauren Philiotis’ senior year takes off, her workload has lightened
Lauren is a marketing major at St. Ambrose from St. Charles, Ill. From the time she was 2 years old, Lauren was a dancer. She continued that tradition on to her high school years and was a member of the St. Francis dance team. While at St. Francis, her team competed twice at the UDA National Championship at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
When Lauren came to St. Ambrose she was sure to pack her dancing shoes. Lauren was no stranger to national competitions. During her sophomore year, Lauren joined the varsity dance team in Daytona Beach, Fla. where they competed at nationals. The team placed 2nd in the NAIA large varsity division.
Last year, the team headed back down to Florida, with the hopes of taking home the gold, and that they did. They placed 1st overall in the NAIA division and 5th in the hip hop category.
In November 2012, Lauren’s heavy workload and job hunting forced her to hang up her dancing shoes.
“I had to quit the dance team because I was hired to work at Chicago Twenty Something. I needed to have the freedom to go home when I was needed at work, which wasn’t possible when I was on the team,” Lauren said.
Chicago Twenty Something is an event planning company in the city. They plan private and corporate events that target the 20-somethings in Chicago. After graduation Lauren plans to work for the company as a marketing associate.
Lauren might not be a part of the dance team anymore, although she is still following their journey back to Daytona Beach. The team competed at state at the end of 2012, and took home 1st place in hip hop, and 2nd place in jazz and pom. The team competed in regionals on Feb. 2, 2013 where they placed 1st in large varsity and hip hop and 2nd in small varsity.
The St. Ambrose dance team will head back to Daytona Beach for the National Championship during April to defend their 1st place title.
When Lauren is not dancing, she enjoys traveling, and has been to more than 12 countries. She plans to do some traveling over the upcoming break. Lauren might not be heading to Florida for dance, but she does plan on heading to Panama City to celebrate her senior year spring break with friends from St. Ambrose.