It was a time for celebration, as students aimed to turn their passions for the arts into a career.
Five Aubrey High School seniors were surrounded by supportive friends, family and staff as they each signed their letters of intent at the April 22 Fine Arts Signing Day, which was held in the auditorium.
“I'm very thankful that Aubrey did recognize them,” parent Kristi Rose said. Adding not just for fine arts but for the other career paths students are choosing, such as sports, technical and military. “I'm glad that they're recognizing all these kids on their accomplishments and what their future is leading them to.”
For her daughter Claire Rose, music and singing have been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.
Now Claire plans to pursue a degree in news and sports media and a minor in choir at Kansas State to keep involved in both her interests in sports and music.
“She had that moment of ‘this is where I wanna be—I've found my place’—which is so great for kids to experience that because that's where they're going to be and that's where they're going to grow and that's where you want them to thrive,” Kristi said.
Claire thanked her parents for their support throughout the years and her choir director Paul Norris.
“Having him as my choir director for four years, he's taught me so many things,” Claire said. “He's worked with me on literally everything choir-wise under the sun. He's also been my biggest supporter dur- ing, my process of getting accepted into Kansas State, going to their choir camp, and just, all of the excitement in that.”
Emma Farr came to Aubrey as a junior by getting involved in the arts. Farr said she has honed her skills by working with different media and using various techniques.
“I've always been drawing ever since I could pick up a pencil, but I started taking it more serious in second grade,” she said. “Then my passion just grew stronger from there. I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up, when I was in ninth grade, was to be an art therapist because art helped me so much throughout my life, and I wanted to share it.”
She will continue to develop those skills as she plans to attend Texas Woman’s University after graduation.
“Art is more than just putting it on paper,” Farr said. “It's self-expression, and I want to share that.”
She thanked her mom and her former art teacher at Boswell High School, Dhananjaya Perera, for both shaping her fine arts skills and encouraging her to pursue visual arts.
Like Farr, Gabriel Nowell, who transferred to Aubrey a little over a year ago, jumped right in and joined the high school choir, which he described as a random occurrence.
After a chance encounter with Norris, he decided to change his schedule and join the choir.
He plans to attend Dallas Baptist University and will major in music business.
His dream job is to oversee a church’s worship team.
“I never really thought of it as like a career choice up until I went to Aubrey,” Nowell said. “Mr. Norris really taught me that there's a lot of opportunities that you can have if you go into college studying music, especially music business. It opens a lot of doors, and it's just really helped me kind of see that and see all the opportunities I could have, and just being in choir, kind of helped me grow in my love of music, and just having an amazing teacher like Mr. Norris really kind of guide us, as people and as musicians.”
Ever since Faith Scanlan was little, she’s loved to dance.
When she and her family moved to the area a couple of years ago, she recalled that there was no dance team at Aubrey High School.
So, in its place, she joined the cheer team.
However, the following year, dance was offered, and she joined the team and became an officer, and now serves as captain.
“I've learned a lot,” Scanlan said. “It's not only about competition, but it's really about like who you meet and who you're on a team with, and how to work together and be a leader for everybody else.”
Scanlan will attend Texas Wesleyan University, majoring in business and minoring in dance. Her goal is to one day own her own studio.
“I wanna thank my coach, coach Jarvis, for pushing me and my mom and my dad and my family just for believing in me and also just pushing me to be my best,” Scanlan said.
After joining the choir as a freshman, Logan Phelps shared that the experience has been a rollercoaster, yet it’s been worth the ride.
Coming from a musically inclined family, she knew music would remain a part of her life.
“I have known that I wanted to do something with music ever since I was a little kid, ever since I was able to think about a dream job,” Phelps said. “I've always wanted to be like a professional singer, like a famous singer, but I knew that wasn't realistic. So I did the closest thing that I could get to that, which was a choir director.”
Phelps will attend Tarleton State University to continue her education toward becoming a choir director and possibly a vocal coach.
She thanked Norris, who played a role in her pursuit of becoming a choir director, something she hadn’t considered before, and her parents for their support throughout her journey.
“She's worked so hard the last four years,” Logan’s mom Dawn said tearfully. “It hasn’t always been the best, easiest. But to see her happy and being able to do what she wants to do, it just makes me so proud of her and to see her finally sign to the school she truly wanted to go to was the best.”
The day before graduation, Norris will take a group of four choir students, including Rose, Nowell, Phelps, and Hailey Warren, to compete in the state solo ensemble contest near Austin.
Having been at Aubrey for four years, he said he was speechless to hear the impact he’s had on the students.
“I'm blessed to have them,” Norris said. “We're gonna hurt next year without them, but I'm excited for what they're going to take on and the programs that they're going to be involved in.”
