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Inspiring Women : November 2020

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A Thoroughly Modern<br />

Woman<br />

CAITLYN OENBRINK<br />

Member: American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of<br />

London<br />

From: Charleston, SC<br />

Lives: South London, England<br />

My Life Journey<br />

I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. I have one sister who is<br />

11 years younger than me and two extremely supportive<br />

parents. As clichéd as it sounds, I guess I always had a flair for<br />

the dramatic.<br />

When I was a child I loved performing fireplace song & dance<br />

shows or directing friends in plays/movies in the backyard. As I<br />

got older, I became involved in dance lessons, school and church<br />

choirs, and eventually attended a public fine arts middle school.<br />

At that point I discovered my love for musical theater and began<br />

taking voice lessons and auditioning for local theaters,<br />

performing with my high school show choir and in as many<br />

school productions as possible.<br />

My parents both consider themselves non-musical and the<br />

running joke around our house was “If Caitlyn shot in the 70’s on<br />

the golf course, we’d know she was pretty good…but when it<br />

comes to singing or acting, we have no clue, but she sounds<br />

pretty good to us”. Looking back, the artist life was certainly a<br />

learning curve for them both, but they have always been<br />

Age 5, always the drama queen!<br />

supportive and worked hard to find<br />

the right people to help me achieve<br />

my dreams every step of the way.<br />

I attended the University of South<br />

Carolina on a music scholarship to<br />

study voice and opera/musical<br />

theater while minoring in public<br />

relations. At USC, I became heavily<br />

involved in the opera productions<br />

working both on stage and behind<br />

the scenes to grow and develop a<br />

student-run artistic admin team. We<br />

helped with fundraising, marketing,<br />

71<br />

With my husband and family on vacation on the Amalfi Coast, Italy

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