As she sat in the choir room of Butler University last summer, senior Samantha Beckham could feel nervousness creeping up on her.

She was there to attend a classical voice camp, but she knew she wasn’t as prepared as the other singers there. Some of them had clearly been trained because they knew how to sing opera, and she wasn’t used to that style. Regardless, she faced the challenge and came out with a positive experience.

“It was kind of out of my comfort zone,” Beckham said. “But I just like singing so much, I’ll try anything, and I think that it’s good to do that.”

Starting in third grade music class was required, but senior Samantha Beckham now takes it by choice because to her the class has become a stem for her future. Her passion for singing and music has flourished throughout the years, and she has decided she wants to pursue it through college and possibly as a career. However, having her first taste of a more advanced choir was a whole new experience for her.

Beckham plans on majoring in vocal performance at Butler because she knows a lot about the school and liked their music program. After college, she hopes to sing in her favorite style, which is gospel and jazz, but says she will take anything she can get. Or, she said she would like to do musical education because she enjoys helping others in choir and learning music deeper than what’s on the surface.

This will be Beckham’s fourth year taking choir with SHS choir teacher Katherine Doty and she is currently in show choir and jazz choir. Also, she will be playing “Mrs. Potts” in this year’s musical, “Beauty and the Beast,” where she will also be working with Doty.

Doty says she has always liked Beckham and believes she has amazing talent. Doty says Beckham’s good personality and morals are still the same as when she first met Beckham, which she admires about her. She sees Beckham as a student who can thrive, even when the going gets tough, and hopes that she continues with choir.

“This profession isn’t always easy, but at the end of the day, I think she has the ability to make that fit,” Doty said.

Beckham says she is planning on getting a vocal coach so she’ll feel better prepared for what the future holds for her and learn how to sing correctly. She also says she has to keep her body healthy because, as Beckham acknowledges, her body is her instrument and she can’t take a voice box to a music shop and expect it to be fixed.

She also wants to learn more about the music she’s singing because she feels that it will give her more of a drive and get her more involved.

“A piece of music is so much more than one thing,” Beckham said. “It’s more than rhythm. It’s more than the expression. It’s all of it put together to make how music makes you feel. If you do all those things together, you’ll have a greater outcome.”