Photography by Ryan Riley
When I heard the ISU Cyclone Marching Band practicing during my first tour of campus, I just immediately fell in love. I knew I wanted to come to Iowa State and be in the band and be a part of all of it.
And, lucky for me, because I always planned to major in engineering, Iowa State is a great band school and a great engineering school.
I’ve found strong community in both band and in the College of Engineering as an electrical engineering major. Our band director always says at practices “look around you and you’re standing next to your maid of honor at your wedding, your future spouse, your friends for life.”
And I have met some of the best friends, starting right away at band camp and in my first engineering classes. Since many people in my band section are fellow engineers, if we’re struggling with an engineering assignment, we help each other out.
It makes perfect sense to me that so many engineering students are in marching band. Both engineering and band involve a lot of quick learning, finding patterns, problem solving and figuring your way out of tough spots. And in both band and engineering you have to develop teamwork and leadership skills if you want to be successful.
Being a section leader in Marching Band and majoring in electrical engineering keep me very busy, but I do everything I do because I love it. I love the Iowa State community. I love my fellow students.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have so many opportunities at Iowa State and made so many friends that I want to create a community that enables other students to do the same – as a Cyclone Engineer, in marching band, everywhere.
