BIG SPRING, TX — Yesterday, five Big Spring High School music students signed their letter of intent to continue their music careers at Howard College in Big Spring. According to Mark Watt, Associate Professor at Howard College who teaches band and choir, all will receive a scholarship for at least $500.
Watt told KBest News that kids from Big Spring High School are always very well prepared and are fantastic musicians.
“They are a huge contribution to our program at Howard College. We’re thrilled to always get as many as can from Big Spring. They’re great kids,” said Watt.
Students who signed their letter of intent yesterday as follows:
Armando Bravo – Band, French horn
Gavin Barnett – Band, trumpet
Ana Villagrana – Band, flute
James Pascual – Band, drummer
Jonah Villarreal – Choir. He’ll be majoring in music and will receive a scholarship to fully cover his tuition and fees.
All students said they appreciated the opportunity from Howard College to be able to continue their education.
“I feel wonderful. I really appreciate the opportunity I got with this scholarship. It’s gonna help me a lot, especially in the future.” – Gavin Barnett.
“This is a great opportunity. I’m very excited for this. It is a really great opportunity because I wanna continue nursing that he’s really gonna help me for my career.” – Ana Villagrana
“I’m really excited to seize this opportunity given to me today by Mr. Watt. I’m really looking forward to getting my associate’s here at Howard before I transfer out and yeah, I’m really excited.” – James Pascual
“This is a really great chance for me to continue my educational goals and to have funds to do it and to be able to go do what I want to do.” – Armando Bravo
“There’s so many things that I want to say, but to start out, I want to thank God and my family for all the opportunities without them. I definitely would not have gotten this far. I’d like to think Mr. Watt, Mr. King, and everyone that has supported me through this very long journey, not only will I be going for music education but I’ll be going for welding, as well. Finish out the two years and do welding to become a pipeline welder, but really God and everyone that supported me I really want to thank them all. This is an amazing opportunity.” – Jonah Villarreal
When asked if they thought it was important that students had an option like Howard College to continue their education, students agreed that it was a great asset to the community.
“I believe that is really important. It’s more about instead of going so far away and spending so much money. It gives everybody a head start and you know, get a little taste of the college life and then move on from there, wherever they wanna go. I think it’s important, especially for everybody. Everybody should have a chance to go to junior college and stuff like that,” said Barnett.
Villarreal added that just because it’s a local college, it’s still a college and offers tremendous opportunities for improvement and growth as a person and musician.
Pascual agreed, stating, “The fact that it’s a junior college doesn’t take away the fact that it is a college and it’s just so convenient that I can drive from my house to the college within like eight minutes. Just being so close while still being a college is what makes it so convenient and nice to me.”
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