Student Raechel Brunson ’19 connects her award-winning experience in a cappella to her experience building community on campus.
At the recent South Quarterfinal of the Varsity Vocals Intercollegiate Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), Raechel Brunson ’19 won the Outstanding Soloist award across nine universities in her division. ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’s a capella group Shirley Tempos competed in the recent Athens, GA competition where Brunson won this special award for her solo of “Love on the Brain” by Rihanna.
“My a cappella group had never competed before. We’d been working hard all of Winter Term,” Brunson says regarding the concert held February 9 and 10 where Shirley Tempos closed out their three-song set with “Greedy” by Ariana Grande and “The Last of the Real Ones” by Fall Out Boy.
Brunson is majoring in creative writing and drama & theatre studies and is originally from Fayetteville, N.C. In addition to singing, she educates the ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ community as an events & planning manager for the Gender & LGBTQIA Center, a diversity center on campus. Singing and educating are near and dear to Raechel’s heart, as she has achieved leadership and a sense of community through these organizations while at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ.
Using her golden voice for good, Brunson gives this advice to fellow ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ students, “I try my best to be kind to everybody. You never know the impact you can have on someone else’s day. I would never want someone to feel like I said a harsh word against them or did something that caused them to have a bad day. That’s easily preventable when you can use your voice to do good.”
You can catch Brunson singing at the upcoming Shirley Tempos spring concert in April 2018.