Scholarships for ESU Athletic Bands are set to increase in the fall of 2024. Through Together Forward Campaign fundraising, Emporia State secured the funds needed to significantly increase the scholarship money awarded to Athletic Bands members: the Marching Hornets, Colorguard, the Stingers Dance Team, Hornet Cheer, Hornet Revue, and Elegante Independent.
“This all began when President Hush came and watched the marching band during a rehearsal and I invited him to the top of our band tower to watch,” said Dr. William Woodworth, Director of Athletic Bands.
After a runthrough of the show, Hush and Woodworth began a conversation about the needs of the program in regards to enrollment.
Naturally, scholarship money was discussed as a driving force in participation. $500 per semester was the previous stipend offered to Athletic Bands members.
“Often, once students see how many hours are involved in the fall semester on top of work and other classes, it becomes too much work for such a small scholarship,” Woodworth said.
President Hush announced the increased funding for Athletic Bands scholarships in January.
In the fall semester, Athletic Bands scholarships will start at $2000 for first year students and increase each year to a cap of $3,000 for members of 4 or more years. Auditioned members of the new VolleyBand will also receive an additional $500. For the spring semester, scholarships will begin at $1,500 for first year students and increase to $2,250 for 4 year members.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Emporia State Marching Hornets had roughly 125 members. Like many music programs across the country, enrollment dropped drastically following lockdowns.
Even though it has been more than three years since then, the Marching Hornets have not been able to achieve pre-pandemic numbers and currently sit around 90.
It is the hope of the department that these new scholarships will drive enrollment back to previous enrollment rates and even surpass them.
“The Marching Hornets winds and percussion has a cap of 200 members,” Woodworth said. “If we get past that, we would have to start looking at some sort of audition process.”
As of now, there is no audition required to be a part of the Marching Hornets because the number of interested persons does not exceed the cap.
“We would love to have a situation where we have more people interested than we have space,” he said. “[An audition process] would also drive our quality up.”
Part of the scholarship money comes from line-item funding and the remaining amount will come from the ESU Foundation, which has benefited greatly from the Together Forward Campaign’s fundraising efforts.
“One of the reasons the Emporia State Athletic Bands is being chosen for this scholarship fund is that well over half of our ensembles are non-music majors,” Woodworth said. “Having these funds for these ensembles is benefitting the entire university.”
The results of the Together Forward Campaign, including scholarship efforts, will be announced at a celebration event on Feb. 17.
