![Rotary Club of Beloit | Student of the week]( "Rotary Club of Beloit | Student of the week")
Rotary Club of Beloit
Student of the Week
January 2016
Realizing Aspirations
Clearly, Beloit Memorial Senior and Jazz Band member Frank McKearn has found it possible to embrace that idea at school and while playing his trumpet. In both, he has realized the greatest aspirations, finishing strongly in all.
No place is that more obvious than in Frank’s appearances with the Jazz Band at the Essentially Ellington Festival in NYC – past and forthcoming, which marks the fifth consecutive year Beloit has been invited to the prestigious music event or sixth appearance in seven years.
Forth for IV
“This will be Frankie’s fourth year going,” said his mother Jean Marie, who with his father Frank, applauds BMHS and the Jazz Band alike. “He is actually Francis Eugene McKearn IV, so we are having fun with a play on words in the family: fourth for IV; he’s four for four; etc.”
Through the high school’s Jazz Band, Jean Marie continued, “Frankie has gained a great deal of independence, leadership skills and a TON of jazz T-shirts. Having a standard public school — versus a school exclusively dedicated to teaching jazz musicians — continue to be selected for Essentially Ellington is quite remarkable and should not be overlooked. Well over 100 high schools submit audition tapes and only 15 are chosen each year. The students are the performers; however, Mr. Behrens is the one who got them to where they are today — much to the delight, joy and honor of not just BMHS, but the entire Stateline Community. His efforts are extraordinary.”
Frank and Jean Marie elaborated, “Would have to say Jazz is Frankie’s favorite class. Hands down.
Traveling with the Jazz Band is probably at the top of his extra-curricular activities. Mr. Behrens has created such great opportunities for his students to grow, not just as a musician, but as a person as well.
Wynton Marsalis & Frank McKearn
God Given Talent
“We would remind parents that their child’s life is up to him or her. Do not create expectations for him or her other than that they live a moral life. The rest will follow.”
Jean Marie added, “Frankie could play the piano before he knew his ABC’s. He has had many instructors, and while many of them might have introduced him to jazz music and instilled in him the desire to work hard and practice, it was God that gave him the talent to begin with. A child simply needs to be introduced to opportunities – the rest will follow.”
School Bio
Francis McKearn has been selected as a Rotary Student of the Week.
He is the son of Frank and Jean Marie McKearn.
Francis has been a High Honor Roll student all four years at Beloit Memorial receiving awards for Outstanding Academic Achievement. He is a Beloit College Porter Scholar.
While at BMHS, Francis has been involved with the Increscent Newspaper, Pit Orchestra and BMHS Jazz Band. In Jazz, he earned the Outstanding Jazz Improviser Award. He has also been awarded his Band and Theatre Letters.
Outside of BMHS, Francis is involved with OLA Church, along with giving trumpet lessons and public performances outside of school.
Francis plans to attend Northern Illinois University to major in Jazz Studies with a teaching certification.
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