Graham Cochrane '01

Last summer I attended the Virginia Governor's School for the Performing Arts in the field of drama. It was a great honor and a life-changing experience for me. Before that summer, I had decided that I wanted to study acting in college. I had picked out all the major acting schools in the country to apply to in the fall. Little did I know that after living at the University of Richmond for a month with the most talented high school kids in the state, I would do a complete 180 in my career interests. I ended up spending most of my time writing, playing and even recording music. Two friends and I wrote, recorded and sold 100 copies of an original 8-song CD. Music has always been a passion of mine, but I never realized how drawn I was to the whole process of creating an album from start to finish. In my mind, it is an art form. Not just writing music, but taking the creativity and making a final "draft". It's harder and more in depth than I could've imagined and we were just making an album in a dorm room!

This was a life-changing experience for me and wouldn't have been possible without the money that was graciously given to me by the Tayloe Enrichment Scholarship. My heart goes out to you, Mr. Tayloe. I thank you for giving me an opportunity to do something different with my life.