Spring Commencement 2025 – Lauren Griffin’s experience fuels her fight against cyberbullying

Lauren Griffin grew up in the digital era, when children were getting their hands on technology and feeling the pressures of social media at an early age. 

Living on a farm in a small community, Griffin often was home alone for a while after school before her parents returned from work. She needed to have a means of communication. Soon, however, she felt the negative effects that can manifest through hand-held technology from strangers on the internet.

“I was a victim of cyberbullying,” said the Radford University senior from Buchanan, Virginia. “I started getting really hateful comments on things I would post; I would get hateful messages sent to me.” Fake accounts were made in her name. It was a different and strange world to navigate for a teenage girl whose motto was to be the sunshine in someone else’s day. 

“I was just so upset and sad,” she said. 

When it was time for Griffin to go to college, she chose Radford University after hearing “amazing things,” she said, from friends and mentors about the university’s dedication to providing hands-on experiences for its students.

Griffin wanted to make an impact, and Radford provided the opportunities to do so through academics and research. She quickly decided on a major – cybersecurity – and was recruited to join Research Rookies, a program providing student-faculty research experiences to select high-achieving incoming first-year and transfer students.

“It just opened my world,” Griffin said. “It was opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten at other universities.”

Griffin began presenting her research during the fall semester of her sophomore year. “I was freshly 18 years old at the time,” she said, recalling getting asked to speak at a Cybersecurity Research and Education Conference. She thought the request was a joke at first. She felt too young and inexperienced to present at such a prestigious event.

“But I did it,” Griffin said, “and the opportunities just continued to roll in.” 

Most recently, Griffin showcased her research at the inaugural Undergraduate Research Showcase in Richmond, Virginia, and at the Women in Data Science Conference at Virginia Tech.

The response to her research into “Cybercrimes Committed Against Youth” has been “phenomenal,” Griffin said. She’s been made aware by education professionals of how impactful her research can be. “I’ve been told,” she said, “that I need to present and talk to school systems about plans to help” minimize cyberbullying. 

Griffin’s impact is felt throughout various communities and on campus, as well as through various club activities in which she participates. One of those is the Radford University Alumni Ambassadors, an organization that links and inspires Highlander pride among students and Radford alumni.

Griffin joined the group early into her freshman year at the urging of her grandmother, alumna Esther Whitehead Clear ’72.

“My Gigi” – that’s Griffin's affectionate name for her grandmother – “said, ‘You should join; I think you’ll like it.’” Griffin considered it. She visited the group during Club Fair and joined right there on the spot.

“I love it,” she said nearly four years later.

Griffin loves the opportunity to make “connections with alumni when they come to campus,” she said, wearing her Gigi’s Radford College class ring. “It is really cool to hear their life stories, how Radford impacted them and why they still keep coming back to campus. I love to talk with them to see where life has taken them.”

On May 10, Griffin will graduate from Radford and begin her own journey. She’s leaning toward a career in cyberanalysis or cyberterrorism. “I really just want to be in a field where I can use my cybersecurity skills and help with investigations and prosecutions,” Griffin said. 

She’s excited to see where life will take her. Wherever it is, she feels she owes so much to her education and experiences at Radford and the people she has met along the way.

“I wouldn't be where I'm at today without Radford,” she said. “I'm really grateful for everything that it has provided to me.”

To learn more about Radford University's commencement ceremonies, visit www.radford.edu/commencement.