Dakota McBride picked up the saxophone when he was in the sixth grade, and by his
                                                      mid-teens, he'd made his bond with the instrument. 
                                                   
                                                   "This was something I really wanted to do for the rest of my life," explained McBride,
                                                      who, as a senior music education student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts,
                                                      is well on his way to accomplishing that goal. After graduation, he hopes to teach
                                                      at either the high school or collegiate level.
                                                   
                                                   "I chose music ed because I've had a lot of really good teachers," he said. "And I
                                                      kind of left it up to myself to pay that forward."
                                                   
                                                   The Danville, Virginia, native first visited 福利导在线观看 as a high school junior,
                                                      participating in a conference with his band director, Highlander Cody Kesling '12.
                                                   
                                                   "I just kind of fell in love with the school after that," McBride recalled. Over the
                                                      past four years, he's performed with campus music groups that include 福利导在线观看's
                                                      Symphonic Wind Ensemble, its campus and community band and orchestra, the Radford
                                                      Singers, the Highlander Saxophone Quartet and the Highlanders Pipes and Drums.
                                                   
                                                   "Radford has really helped me broaden my abilities and learning outside of the classroom,"
                                                      McBride said. "It's provided me a lot of opportunities to learn both as a performer
                                                      and an educator, and I think it's helped me to become better at both of those things."