It began as an idea on the back of a tour bus my freshman year, born in conversation with another singing engineer. Four months later, we recruited the university’s very first professional chorus made up entirely of engineering students.

It was simple, but far from easy. I bought two conducting textbooks, read them cover to cover, and learned and practiced each musical score in front of the mirror every day (in addition to all my engineering coursework). Outside of my musical practice, I pulled a team of officers together, and we worked on solidifying an audition process, rehearsal times and marketing. Our 2020 E-Week concert on the Learning Stairs was everything I dreamed it to be: There were hundreds of people watching us from every floor of Zachry, in awe of our beloved building filled with sound! The pandemic stopped us from meeting in person, but we transitioned to Zoom rehearsals and almost doubled in membership.

Ingeniare has become everything I wanted as a freshman engineering student, and everything I didn’t know I needed.

My choir galvanizes me to constantly be more positive. I had a rough exam preceding one of our Zoom rehearsals last semester and I was so exhausted that I felt feverish. Launching the meeting and seeing so many excited faces inspired me. The two-hour rehearsal was invigorating. It pulled me through midterm week, and my fever disappeared.

We have students from the Corps of Cadets, from Texas and from across the globe, former orchestra members, former band members, beginners and state competition winners. A graduate student from India later told us he didn’t know how to read sheet music or have many American friends before joining our choir. A guy who was going to be our pianist sang for the first time by joining us during warm-ups. A student from the Corps runs across campus to make it to our rehearsals in ZACH, and one of our current officers reached out to me about joining after seeing us on the College of Engineering’s Instagram before he even registered for his NSC. Ingeniare has become everything I wanted as a freshman engineering student, and everything I didn’t know I needed.

A few people in my past didn’t support this idea, but I took the risk anyway because people whose opinions mattered more to me did support it. Today, there are still people I meet who don’t understand why I put so much energy into this art if I’m studying engineering. I understand their confusion, but I can’t predict how I’m going to impact others. I can only keep striving to be the best versions of myself, every single day.

I feel most connected to the universe when I conduct. For me, conducting is a spiritual experience where I am suddenly in awe of a phenomenon as simple and elegant as sound. I have come to believe that the best of my energy exists not in my physical body, but in the airwaves between me and my choir, the liminal space between the sound that was, the sound that is and the sound that could be with our next breath.