Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and I cannot imagine what my life might be like without it. Since I was young, I’ve performed in choirs, bands, musicals, private lessons, and solo and ensemble contests. Every encounter I’ve had with music has caused me to be more intrigued and fall more in love with its beauty and mystery than ever before. As I reached the end of my high school career, I realized that the only way I knew I could be happy every day for the rest of my life would be to share my love of music with others and create a similar love in them.

While attending Riley County High School, I had a fantastic choir director who inspired me to pursue music as a career. She opened my eyes to the power of music through her teaching of the technique and expression of music. I was inspired by how much she genuinely cared about each of her students and was always someone many students felt they could go to whenever they were struggling whether it was related to her class or not. I’ve always wanted a career where I could help people, not just learn, but be better people and she proved to me that I could do that. In my position as president of my school’s Tri-M chapter, I was able to work closely with my director to get a sneak preview of what it was like to be a choir director.

Throughout my time at K-State, my love of music has only grown as I have performed in several choral ensembles, opera scenes, sang with the K-State Orchestra, and in the production of The Marriage of Figaro. As wonderful as those experiences were, my proudest moments in my time at K-State were when I was able to transfer my knowledge and passion for music to others. Through my field experiences and conducting the K-State University Choir, I’ve gotten to teach students at all age levels and have fallen in love with seeing my students succeed after they have worked incredibly hard on something and when I can see that music has brought them the same kind of joy it brings to me.

As my time at K-State comes to an end, I’m ready to immerse myself in the school setting. The passion I have for music will serve as an example to my students as they discover music and develop their own love for it through performance and understanding. I’m excited to finally be able to apply everything I’ve learned at K-State and in my field experiences in my own classroom. After completing student teaching, my goal is to build a choral program in which the students are musically literate, can make personal connections to the music, and share their music with the community.