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Media Credit: Courtesy of Lauren John Lauren John, a senior math major graduating in December (left), and her friend Julie Hasselblad, pose for a picture in July in Lake Tahoe, Calif. The two were on a summer vacation visitng Lake Tahoe for the Fourth of July holiday. [Click to enlarge]

Lauren John did not ever see herself joining a sorority before coming to college.

"I wasn't ready for the stereotype they're going to place on me just because I'm a sorority girl," she said.

The senior mathematics major considered joining a sorority after being encouraged by her mother and a friend from church.

"It also makes me laugh at myself because I nonchalantly went through sorority recruitment and got more out of the experience than I ever thought I would," she wrote in e-mail.

John, now president of the Sigma Kappa sorority, said she found her niche in joining the sorority.

"Joining Sigma Kappa was the best decision I made once I got to TCU," she wrote in an e-mail. "I feel I have grown so much as a friend and a leader in Sigma Kappa that my life would not be as rich without it."

Rebecca Schroeder, senior movement science major and one of John's sorority sisters, said John was very quiet the first time they met.

"First thing, she came off as quiet, but she's really not," she said. "When you get to know her, she can be outgoing."

John has wanted to be a math teacher since she was in middle school because of one of her own math teachers.

"Starting out in middle school, I had this really good math teacher. He was crazy and really loud and I was this little shy seventh grader," she said. "He was excited about math and was so approachable that he helped me see that I'm pretty good at this."

John said being a math teacher works well with her values.

"I'm one of those people who likes to give back," she said. "I feel that it's my job to do something that is helping people, so I decided 'hey, I can be a math teacher.'"

John said she wants to be a math teacher to get rid of the math stereotype and help people not to dislike math.

"I want to help kids realize that they can do math and they do not have to be a brain to do it," she said.

Janet Kelly, associate professor of education at TCU, said John has used her creativity to tackle semester-long projects.

"She's an overachiever who performed extremely well in all situations: teaching, writing and creating curriculum. She has many strengths," Kelly said. "She has a very strong work ethic and she follows through on everything."

She was offered a teaching job at R.L. Paschal High School in October after spending a semester student-teaching there, said Linda Antinone, math and AP physics teacher at Paschal.

John will start teaching Honors Algebra I January.

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