Straughn High School senior Lee Herring received a full tuition band leadership scholarship to Huntington College.

Herring said he decided to join the band program because it was God’s plan.

“I feel like God has a plan for all of us,” Herring said. “And Huntington is His plan coming through in my life.”

He said that he has always been involved in music, and he is excited to pursue it at the collegiate level.

“I think music has always been my passion,” Herring said. “I am excited to be able to teach others with this opportunity.”

Herring said that he is most excited about being surrounded by a God-centered community.

“I think I am most excited to meet the other people at Huntington,” Herring said. “I am just so excited to be around a God-centered community.”

Without his friends and family, Herring said that he wouldn’t be where he is today.

“There is no other feeling to describe how great it is to be surrounded by a loving family and friends,” Herring said. “I feel like I can rely on my friends, because they have been here for me throughout middle school and high school.”

When Herring found out about the scholarship and told his parents, he said they immediately started crying.

“It was a very intense moment,” Herring said. “Right when I told them they started crying and then we prayed afterward.”

It wasn’t an easy road to earn the scholarship; Herring said that he had to participate in an audition before the scholarship was awarded.

“I had to play a prepared piece on the French horn,” Herring said. “We really talked most of the audition. Afterwards I felt very peaceful about the entire process.”

One of Huntington’s band directors, Adam Murphy, said that after talking to Herring multiple times and finally meeting him on campus, he knew immediately that they needed him in the band.

“We talked several times over the past year,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t until he and his family came up to Huntington for a tour that I got this great sense about Lee, about the direction that he is going to bring this program, his leadership and his character. We were sold immediately.”

Murphy said the main thing that he was most impressed about Herring was his character.

“We talked a lot during the audition and we heard him play,” Murphy said. “He was a great musician, but we were most impressed by his character. I talked to the other band directors almost immediately and we said, ‘Yes. This is the kid and we need to have him.’ We offered him the scholarship on the spot that day.”

The full tuition scholarship offered to Herring is the first of its kind offered by Huntington, Murphy said.

“This scholarship is very selective,” Murphy said. “We only have very few of these to give and it is a full tuition scholarship. This is a scholarship that we give to kids that we see will be future role models and leaders in our program. We give it to people that we see will bring great stability and progress to our band and we think Lee incorporates all of that.”

SHS band director Daniel Walden believes that Huntington is the perfect fit for Herring.

“He is a great musician,” Walden said. “But not only that, he is a great motivator. He was always the guy that would fill the water coolers for practice, he was band president elected by his peers, he was in charge of the loading crew and he always pushed forward. I think he will fit in well at Huntington.”

Herring plans to major in social science education with the hopes of coming back to Straughn High School to be a teacher.