In the Jungle; Wyatt Smith

Welcome to In The Jungle, where we meet the grillers of Pittsburgh State University. I'm your host Howard Smith and today we're joined by Wyatt Smith. Wyatt, thanks for being here. God, it's a pleasure. Tell us a little bit about where you went to high school and what your major is now. I grew up and went to high school in Garden City, Kansas. Southwest six hours away. So it's been fun to experience different part of Kansas. Growing up in Garden was a really good experience. It's a great community. I had a really strong family. And coming to Pitt was a really cool experience. So you chose music yet? Yes. Now why music yet? I chose music because I didn't want to spend hours studying. I thought I wanted to become an engineer for a while, but I decided to pursue my passion which was music and I loved math, I loved physics, but music just really kept calling to me. So now what's your specialty in music? I study trumpet. trumpet, okay. Now I understand you're in mostly ensembles here. Tell us a little bit about the different ensembles and some of the things you do. Over the course of this is my fifth year at Pitt.

I performed in everything from jazz one with Doc Severinson, which was an amazing experience to our orchestra, our marching band. Every ensemble has a different feel. You learn different musical lessons from every type of ensemble. I've really enjoyed getting to be involved with different directors and with different performers. And some performers do the same thing I have and have performed in every single group, but no group is the same. And you learn a different musical lesson, have a musical expression that can be different in every type of group, especially from vocal to orchestra. So it's been interesting. Hey, you've been in some great venues and actually some new venues here at Pitt State. I mean, if you've been here five years, there was no Bicknell Center when you came. What was it like to perform in there, especially with somebody like Doc Severinson? Oh, man. Our first, I can remember our first time on stage, both for the choirs and the band when we tune the hall with the sound engineer from New York.

And, you know, we just played in Lincoln Center a couple of weeks before and we were going to play. And we said, why do we need to go to Lincoln Center? We have the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts and so that was just an awesome experience to be in there and hear a professional hall in Pittsburgh, Kansas. And yeah, performing with Doc Severinson, I mean, there's hardly anyone else that I could have imagined myself, you know, for a once in a lifetime experience. So that was really incredible. Hey, you know, game day here is huge. You said marching band. What's it like to march out on the field? Oh, man. It's, you feel like a rock star. That's like a good word for it. I've been drum major the last two years and just getting to go out there. I don't even play anymore, but I still get so pumped up just standing in front of the band and I enjoy and appreciate now the audience reaction, you know, because when you're in the band, you're like, oh, they're screaming their heads off for us. This is so cool. But then standing in front of them, I'm screaming my head off for the band. So you're the leader of that.

You're out there getting them warmed up. What kinds of things do you do to get them warmed up? I mean, really, our band is so good at just driving forward, you know, if they're exhausted. I've seen their phases where they're like, I can't, I can't go anymore and you don't, you just got it. Guys, you got this. You know, this is you. You're going to help our team win this game and they pull through every single time. And it's just incredible to watch those students. And I mean, these are kids who come from all different backgrounds, from competitive BOA bands, you know, top of the line marching to never set a foot on the field before pit state. We take that diversity in the band and just form a really strong family and community that's willing to do whatever it takes at games. So that is cool. Do you know how many members we have in our band approximate? We're about 180 members right now. 180. Wow. Hey, I know you're in the Honors College too. Tell me about the Honors College and what in your experience there as well. Yeah. Oh, man. So I'm just going to start out by saying Dr. Fuchs is awesome. He's been a great mentor and being in the music department, I've got to study with him in music good and conducting classes.

So he's just a rock star for me, a person that I will continue to look up to in my time after pit and continue to always ask, what do I do? I don't know what to do. But just the leadership within the Honors College, those experiences to be around students who are at school because they want to achieve more than maybe what society expects out of them. That experience in itself has been worth it. The academic from it have been an incredible part of it. I've done tons of research projects. I would have never done had I not been encouraged to through Honors College and it is actually part of the course. But what an amazing opportunity to learn more and to have the experience to grow yourself. So yeah, it's just been an incredible blessing to Honors College helps financially some and that's part of the allure of coming to pit for me was I was able to afford college through that. Another area that you've been involved with, campus ministries, it's an outside organization but certainly I know a lot of students benefit from that and appreciate being in that.

What do you do there and how has that impacted your college experience? Man, campus ministry for me has been a huge part of my life. There's been semesters where I backed off and it actually kind of killed me a little bit. I went from being super involved and serving and for me that's a big part of my life. If we're not serving others that we're dying as far as I'm concerned and I experienced that. So campus ministry has given me the opportunity to go out through service teams, through all the ministries have service teams, serving the community, serving each other, serving other ministries, to being on leadership and a worship team and all those things just really have been my heart here and I've learned that I can't do life without it. So that's been an awesome experience and the people are just incredible. Yeah, I got to ask you this too because you talked about the, in your academics and actually the honors college, what's been your most challenging course? Oh man, I decided that there's two courses in college that I would take over and over

again but every time it would be hours of not sleeping working on assignments into the night and honors geography with Dr. Catherine Hoey, just incredible professor and orchestration with Dr. John Ross and those two people as just individuals are inspiring enough but they're teaching and their classes, I mean I will hold onto that information the rest of my life and endless hours and sleep that I can't get back but you know what, it was worth it to learn and to be challenged and to grow through those courses. You want to be a teacher like them? Yeah. Definitely. Great mentors, great people to do that for you. Hey, if you were talking to somebody today about Pitt State, what might you say to them about why they ought to consider us or why they ought to come to school here? Pitt State is a place where anyone can find somewhere to belong. It's a family. I know we hear that all the time because it's true and you know I have so many friends, you know I have people that I may have been around for six weeks total but I could go

to them anytime and they would help me, I could go to them anytime and they would give me advice, you know they'd probably be willing to drop something that they're doing and sacrifice for me and so that in and of itself has just been the most incredible experience here. And that proves why you belong at Pitt'sburg State University. Thank you for joining us for In The Jungle, I'm your host, Howard Smith.