{"id":12871,"date":"2021-12-17T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=12871"},"modified":"2021-12-17T09:04:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T13:04:39","slug":"making-music-a-pathway-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/making-music-a-pathway-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Making music a pathway to success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Julia de Huarte <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Commencements are joyous for newly minted alumni, especially those who conquer challenges and add to the legacy of perseverance the University of Maryland Eastern Shore has come to represent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be tough, in UMES\u2019 winter class of 2021, to top the story of Julia de Huarte\u2019s inspiring journey to earning a college degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Huarte was born prematurely with a brain not fully developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her invisible physical limitation early on presented obstacles to learning, and her family worried that a doctor cautioned her highest level of academic achievement might be elementary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec. 17, 2021 \u2013 graduation day at UMES – put that concern to rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusic was really the thing that helped me overcome a lot,\u201d de Huarte said. \u201cI had an extremely hard time reading, spelling and (with) math. I still have a hard time with \u2026 those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Huarte credits Shannon Hurley-Wilson, an elementary school teacher, with helping her find her strengths as a student and make them work to her advantage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurley-Wilson \u201cdid things like create songs to help me remember things,\u201d she said. \u201cI still use that same technique to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Huarte, who calls Princess Anne home, enrolled at UMES initially as a music education major, but shifted to jazz and popular-style music performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March of this year, de Huarte represented UMES in an all-star chorus of students from historically Black institutions who performed a virtual rendition of the Star Spangled Banner<\/a><\/strong> in honor of the song\u2019s 90th<\/sup> anniversary as the national anthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an amazing feeling to be selected to participate and represent my school,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt pride in being chosen to sing with so many gifted singers, and proud to be singing our country\u2019s national anthem on such a big \u2018stage\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A soprano, she also sang \u201cI\u2019m Not Afraid of Anything\u201d<\/a><\/strong> (50:30 mark) as a soloist at Dr. Heidi M. Anderson\u2019s presidential inauguration in September 2019. The bouncy but soulful performance inspired an Anderson-led standing ovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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de Huarte majored in jazz & popular-style music performance<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a huge honor to sing for her,\u201d de Huarte said. \u201cShe personally reached out to me afterwards and thanked me.  It meant so much to me at the time, and still does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Huarte wasn\u2019t keen initially with her mother sharing the back story of her physical challenges on Social Media earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJulia is a very special woman,\u201d her mother wrote. \u201cHer drive to educate herself and follow all her dreams is simply a miracle and a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of de Huarte\u2019s classmates were aware of how she tackled college level work, and only a handful of instructors she was close with knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reaction has been nothing short of amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cI did not expect there to be such an outpouring of love and support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusic has really been the only \u2018language\u2019 I\u2019ve ever really understood. It has helped me with so many other things,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve liked to sing for as long as I can remember. I didn\u2019t really realize I had a \u2018beautiful\u2019 voice until teachers (who) specialize in music started telling me I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Huarte is already \u201clooking ahead to the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m planning on attending grad school next fall, and from there, who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to travel the world, singing and spreading the gift of music to whoever needs to hear it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt saved me \u2026 maybe I can pay it forward, and do that for someone, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commencements are joyous for newly minted alumni, especially those who conquer challenges and add to the legacy of perseverance the University of Maryland Eastern Shore has come to represent. It might be tough, in UMES\u2019 winter class of 2021, to top the story of Julia de Huarte\u2019s inspiring journey to earning a college degree. De…Read more Making music a pathway to success<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12871"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=12871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}