Graduating Student, Siblings, to Sing at Graduation Ceremony

Reprinted Courtesy of K-State Media Relations and Marketing

Commencement has always been a time for proud families to share in students’ accomplishments, but Kansas State University student Lois Prochaska, who will graduate magna cum laude, is taking that sharing a step further. She’s pulling her brother and two sisters up on stage to help her sing the national anthem for the College of Architecture, Planning and Design’s May 12 ceremony in McCain Auditorium.

“It’s a really difficult song because it has a lot of jumps in range,”
said Prochaska, a bachelor’s degree candidate in interior architecture and product design, Ada. “But we’ve sung together for so long, I don’t think it will be a problem.”

She and siblings Rachel, 28, Sarah, 27, and Seth, 21, grew up singing at home and in public. Prochaska said they would get invited to churches around north central Kansas, where her family farms. Their mother, Rosie Prochaska, was the family instrumentalist, often accompanying them on piano, accordion or autoharp, and their father, Brett Prochaska, played guitar. Brett Prochaska is the family’s other K-State graduate.

So music is a multigenerational tradition: “My mom grew up with her sisters as kind of a gospel group,” Prochaska said.

“I’m excited about having one of our graduates sing,” said Lynn Ewanow, associate dean of the college. Previous musical performances for the ceremony have included a hand-bell choir, a bagpiper and a barbershop quartet that counted Dennis Law, dean of the college, among its members, Ewanow said. “But we will continue to offer this opportunity to our graduates.”

“It’s kind of an exciting thing to be involved in your own commencement ceremony,” Prochaska said, “particularly at such a big university.” She is a 2002 graduate of Minneapolis High School.

She got the gig by being the only person brave enough to respond to the college’s e-mail invitation to sing the anthem. She didn’t want to sing solo, but her siblings were eager to help.

“We’ve sung together since we could walk,” she said. “It will be a challenge, but we enjoy it, and my family is all excited about coming.”

Prochaska’s postgraduation plans include a job with Spangenberg Phillips Architecture in Wichita in June and a wedding in September.

The quartet rehearsed during the Easter weekend at home in Ada, where they settled on a fairly difficult, four-part arrangement, Prochaska said. But “it’s so easy to sing with your siblings, you don’t have to worry” about lengthy practice. Ordinarily, one of them can start a song, and even if the others don’t know the piece, they can quickly harmonize and make it work.

“It will be fun for us to sing in front of people I’ve gone to school with,” Prochaska said, “and I hope fun for them to hear us.”

For more information, contact:
Lynn Ewanow, 785.532.5047
Diane Potts, 785.532.1090