STHS grad Rose Campion leaves USC on a high note as 2018 Valedictorian

A South Lake Tahoe graduate is heading to the podium at the University of Southern California (USC) on Friday, draped with honors cords, award medallions and a pin that will signify her as the 2018 Class Valedictorian.

Rose Campion, 22, will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, and a Bachelor of Arts in History. The double major will leave her USC career behind with a 3.98 GPA.

In a school of 18,000 students and around 5,000 other soon-to-be graduates, it would seem almost impossible for a young woman from South Lake Tahoe to end up in the top spot on graduation day.

But that would only seem impossible for those that don't know Rose.

As a junior at STHS, Rose took her passion for music to USC on Spring Break and contacted fellow trombonist, and USC professor Terry Cravens. She asked him for a private lesson and the two clicked. Cravens is a major reason for her going to USC on a tuition scholarship.

Her senior project at STHS was creating an album of her performing on both the piano and trombone which included work with an ensemble, and then held a recital.

During her junior year at USC, Rose spent a semester abroad in Dresden, Germany where she played in a couple of orchestras. She connected with Germans over music, made many unlikely friends even without full knowledge of language.

As part of her honors history degree criteria, Rose was of four history majors to complete a thesis. She produced over 80 written pages on British music before World War I. She was sponsored by USC to go study in England during the summer of 2017 to complete research for her thesis.

As a senior at USC, Rose was among 40 students above a certain GPA who applied to be valedictorian. After an interview process, Campion got the news that she was selected.

The musical journey that took Rose through four years at USC will take her to Europe for a second time in September. This fall she will enter Oxford University's Philosophy in Musicology two-year Masters program (after a summer vacation in Germany "adventuring").

She applied for a couple of fellowships to go to the United Kingdom, got rejection letters in November, something she said was disheartening.

"I just decided to apply to Oxford again, hoped the third time would be the charm," said Rose. "I got an email going through TSA on spring break that I got in on a scholarship for the Ertegun program at Oxford."

The scholarship covers tuition fees and a living stipend. She'll be in a program for students concerned with social impact and humanities. She'll continue the work of her thesis by doing more research on the Edwardian era of music.

If you ever heard Rose play the trombone when she was at STHS you'll know her musical talents go far beyond reading music. She was magical in her playing, and now the rest of the world gets to hear that music. For the last four years, Rose, who is the daughter of Chris and Kathy Campion of South Lake Tahoe, taught music to students in neighborhood school through South Los Angeles through the USC Thornton Community Engagement Program. (see attached video)

"Being engage with the community outside the walls of school was very rewarding," said Rose.

Community will be part of her valedictorian speech Friday, the subject centering around the need for empathy as an antidote to our divided society.

Campion wants to thank STHS teachers Bridey Heidel and Tricia Suglian for their help. Heidel assisted with the Oxford statements, and Suglian helped with math on the graduate school readiness exam since she hadn't had to study math in four years.

Plans after Oxford? A PHD in Musicology. Her goal is to jump into work of academia and be a teacher and to be involved in community engagement by working with organizations to broaden access to the under-served population to classical music.

"Working with the San Francisco Symphony and their community outreach would be a great job," Rose said. But first, she have to start her next phase by delivering the Valedictorian speech at USC on Friday.

This can be live streamed starting at 8:30 a.m. May 11, or watched on the USC YouTube channel afterwards (Watch here).