Music Grad will head south

SPARTA-Kate Higgins of Sparta recently graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. She earned a bachelor of music degree in music education with flute performance honors Higgins was recognized as one of twelve Visual and Performing Arts Scholars, the highest undergraduate honor awarded by the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She received the Tau Beta Sigma National Honorary Band Sorority's "Women in Music Education Scholarship" and Setnor School of Music's "Helen Falk and Julius Kahn Fund Award" to further music education. Higgins is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the university's marching band, wind ensemble, symphony band, symphony orchestra, basketball pep band, and women's choir. She served as a Visual Performing Arts peer advisor, the traditions chairperson of Tau Beta Sigma, and secretary of the university's chapter of the Music Educator's National Conference (MENC). During her collegiate years, Higgins traveled throughout the United States as a member of the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps. She also participated in the University of Kansas "Summer Abroad Program" in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she studied the Russian language while living with a Russian family. The daughter of Lynn and Barry Higgins of Sparta, Higgins is a 2001 graduate of Sparta High School. She will pursue a masters degree in music education at Florida State University in the fall.