{"id":47695,"date":"2022-12-05T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=47695"},"modified":"2022-11-17T09:35:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T15:35:38","slug":"decision-to-attend-tarleton-changed-commencement-speakers-career-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/decision-to-attend-tarleton-changed-commencement-speakers-career-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision to Attend Tarleton Changed Commencement Speaker\u2019s Career Path"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 As a high school senior, Courtnie Smith was certain of two things: She had been accepted into a biochemistry program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, and she did NOT want to go to college near her hometown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to Dec. 9, 2022. The 2017 Early High School valedictorian will make the keynote speech for Tarleton State University\u2019s 10 a.m. commencement ceremonies and graduate in music education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image\"
Courtnie Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually swore that Tarleton was one of the colleges I would not go to,\u201d she said. \u201cI was not going to Howard Payne, and I was not going to Tarleton. They are both too close, and everybody from my high school was going to one of them. My dad went to Tarleton, which was another reason I couldn\u2019t come here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Then she took the tour. Game over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI decided to make a complete 180 and pursue a degree in music education. I\u2019ve met a lot of friends through the Baptist Student Ministry and the music department. I have some wonderful professors in the music department who have definitely made it a good decision to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now she has a new goal: teach middle school or be a high school band director. Regardless of what happens, she\u2019s thankful for the avenues Tarleton provided. \u201cI was a student conductor on a concert last year. With that you get to lead ensemble rehearsals. I also had several performance opportunities to help me improve as a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the decision that most enlightened her was working as the middle school band director at Morgan Mill last year while taking classes full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter that experience I have a lot of perspective on what kind of teacher I want to be and what direction I want to go as a band director and educator,\u201d she said. \u201cMy instructors at Tarleton have not only given me the knowledge, they have given me opportunities. It\u2019s one thing to know the content \u2014 it\u2019s another thing completely to teach it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her commencement address will explore perseverance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe speech is about what we as students have overcome, and that if we\u2019ve made it to this stage, we have it in us to overcome whatever life throws at us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sounds certain of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 As a high school senior, Courtnie Smith was certain of two things: She had been accepted into a biochemistry program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":47697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,423,425],"tags":[432,453],"class_list":["post-47695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","category-campus-community","tag-alumni","tag-performing-fine-arts"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"priddle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/priddle-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2022\/11\/Image-1-300x211.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Alumni<\/a>","Performing & Fine Arts<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Alumni<\/span>","Performing & Fine Arts<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 5, 2022","modified":"Updated on November 17, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 5, 2022 8:00 am","modified":"Updated on November 17, 2022 9:35 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Woman in a blue dress holding a saxophone outdoors.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}