All the hours Faith Kidwell spent practicing the tuba in high school led to this moment: an audition to join UCF’s brass studio. She was confident in her music selection, but on this day, she felt “terrified,” convinced she wouldn’t be good enough to win over the judges who would determine her future.
One of them she recognized: It was Benjamin Vasko, a visiting assistant professor of tuba and euphonium at the UCF School of Performing Arts. She had spent the past year taking private lessons from him, driving 60 miles each week from Cocoa Beach, Florida, to Orlando in an old pickup truck with no AC or working windows.
“Breathe,” she told herself. “You’ve worked hard for this.”
Adrenaline coursing through her body, her mind giving way to muscle memory, she sat upright, positioned her tuba, drew a deep breath and began playing the first few notes. The rest, she says, is blurred from her memory.
Kidwell, now in her second semester at UCF as a music education major, never would have guessed she’d end up here. Her relatively stable life today stands in stark contrast to her unstable past.
A Florida native, Kidwell grew up in a single-parent home, often shuffling between different schools and foster homes due to her mother’s drug addiction. Shortly after she enrolled in Cocoa Beach Junior/Senior High School, her mother was arrested for the second time. That was when Kidwell’s oldest sister, who had just graduated high school herself, adopted her.
“I never had to worry with my sister,” Kidwell says. “It made me realize what a safe, loving home should be.”
Despite the chaos and turmoil of her childhood, Kidwell had a reliable escape: her love of music. Where playing tuba in her high school’s marching band provided a creative outlet and an ingrained sense of structure and discipline, teaching music to younger students made her realize that she could use her passion to make a positive impact.
“You never know the life someone leads,” Kidwell says. “But when you go into the band room, none of that exists. Band can be the reason why someone looks forward to school. It was for me, and I hope that as a music teacher I can give that to others.”
Going to college was an opportunity Kidwell never thought she’d have. Not because she didn’t have the drive or work ethic, but because college seemed financially out of reach.
Kidwell was sure she’d have to work a full-time job while at UCF. But with the rigors of the music education program and the extraordinary demands of performing in the marching band, where would she find the time?
One day, after practicing 10 hours during Marching Knights Band Camp, just before the start of the fall semester, Kidwell received the news that she had won a $25,000 scholarship from the Taking Flight Foundation.
“I was so exhausted, but after seeing that email, I was buzzing with excitement,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The Taking Flight Foundation Scholarship Fund, established on UCF Day of Giving 2024, provides $25,000 for an incoming freshman’s first year, covering tuition, room and board, and other education-related expenses. Founded by Mark Norato, an entrepreneur and vice president of North American Partners in Anesthesia, the Taking Flight Foundation and Scholarship Fund were inspired by his mother — a single parent who worked two jobs while going back to school to better provide for her family.
Let’s celebrate all things Black & Gold this UCF Day of Giving — Thursday, April 10. Your support fuels the future for every Knight.
“If anyone personifies what my mother was all about — which was the power of perseverance — it’s Faith,” Norato says. “The purpose of this scholarship is to remove the hurdles embedded in someone’s life — to help them see how far they could go if these barriers weren’t there.”
The scholarship, Kidwell says, has impacted her life in ways she could have never imagined. Aware of the dropout rate for first-year college students, she’s grateful that she can now focus on her studies, without having to worry about finances.
“If I didn’t have this [scholarship],” she says, “I wouldn’t be able to do the brass band outside of UCF. I wouldn’t be able to do the mentorship program with a prominent international brass conference. I wouldn’t be able to do school observations or work with students on Sundays. There’s so much I wouldn’t be able to do, and I’m so incredibly thankful.”
Kidwell says she saved the acceptance email of her admission into the UCF music program. The email came shortly after her audition, signed by Vasko, the instructor she studied with leading up to her audition.
It read: “Faith, I’m so proud of you. That was a great audition and a fantastic representation of where you’re going.”
She kept the email as a reminder, she says. “It solidifies that I belong here.”
Be the impact that changes a student’s life, and join us on Thursday, April 10, for UCF Day of Giving. Every gift empowers Knights like Faith to be a Force for the Future.
