Prom picture perfect
By Lisa Coalwell, Staff Writer
Reporter Herald / April 9, 2007
Caitlin Lorenz looks serene and sophisticated on the cover of Prom Guide 2007 – you’d never guess the dress she’s wearing is so big that her escort is holding it up in the back.
”That wasn’t the dress I’d picked out,” said Lorenz, describing her experience as a model for the magazine. “I’d picked out a form-fitting black dress, with lace down the front and the sides.”
Just before her turn during the shoot, the director asked the Mountain View High School senior where she was from. He dropped a bombshell – in his opinion, Colorado was too conservative of a state for her to be wearing the black dress.
”So they made me change my dress, and by that point, all the other prom dresses had been packed away, so they just grabbed the top one. It didn’t fit me, and the guy (in the photo) had to hold my dress on behind me.”
Lorenz is one of 12 high school students nationwide gracing the covers of Prom Guide magazine’s regional editions. She and Jason Pugach of California model on the cover of the Colorado edition, which also contains a brief profile of Lorenz.
Last fall, she heard an announcement in school about a Web site students could access to enter a modeling contest in New York City. She registered online that day during her finance class, since the deadline loomed.
Later, she set up a MySpace-type Web page on the Prom Guide site, which included a photo and information on her school and hobbies.
”Then, I really didn’t even think about it after that,” said Lorenz.
She was doing homework on Sunday night, and got two calls – one telling her she had won a Rotary exchange student scholarship, the other telling her she would be flying all-expense paid to New York City to model.
”I hadn’t even voted, or asked my friends to vote,” said Lorenz, explaining that students across the country voted online to select the 12 finalists from the Prom Guide site.
Although Lorenz would like to do more modeling in the future, she has more-immediate plans.
After graduation, she will travel to Argentina as an exchange student for nine to 10 months.
”I am going to high school for the last four of five months of their school year,” said Lorenz, “and I think I have the chance to go to their university for a few months.”
When she returns, she hopes to attend the University of Denver to study law.
”The only TV show I used to watch was “Law and Order SVU” and I always thought it was cool,” said Lorenz with a laugh. “Now I’m in business law class I really like, and I’m thinking about international law, because my favorite thing to do is travel.”
For now, she's content to finish up AP courses, coach a local girls softball 14-and-under team, serve as president of Mountain View’s DECA business club chapter, and go to prom on May 5 – in a dress she’s chosen – with her real date, Justin Spencer.
If you're a member of the 2008 graduating class and would like to be a Prom Guide cover model, click here to register now.
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