USD Magazine Spring 2017

CLASS  NOTES I

[ j u b i l a n t ] A JOYFUL NOISE Choir director celebrates the spirituality of song

by Julene Snyder t sounds cinematic, but the moment Annette Welsh ’79 arrived on campus, she knew she was where she was meant to be. “We got out of our car, walked in front of Camino and Founders, the bells chimed, the birds went flying and I had this sense that I belonged here. I was at home.” One of 11 children, the then- high school senior wasn’t sure that her family could afford to send her to the University of San Diego. “With joy and a little ner- vousness, I applied. But my mom

everywhere we went. On car rides, we never turned on the radio. We would sing all the old songs our parents knew. ‘Home on the Range’ and ‘Oh, How Lovely is the Evening.’” A love of nature prompted her to major in biology. “As a family, we used to take road trips to different national parks, so I thought, ‘I’ll be a park rang- er.’” But music continued to loom large. “I started playing guitar, and was in the university choir, and joined an audition- based elite musical group on

knew all about applying for schol- arships. I learned in late May that my first year was completely cov- ered, so I was able to come.” Being away from her close- knit family took some getting used to. But before long, living in a quad in Duchesne Hall — where the girls would do cart- wheels and round-offs down the wide, carpeted hallway — helped Welsh make the adjust- ment. “It was a wonderful time,” she recalls, a bit dreamily. Music had always been a big part of her life. “Our family sang

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USD MAGAZINE