The news simply couldn't wait.
 
So even though Elizabeth Schaefer had just left her house on Oct. 15 for volleyball practice at Rossville High School, her mother, Jenny, called her.
 
"I told her, 'You might want to put the car in park and check your e-mail,'" Jenny said.
 
Without hesitation, Elizabeth knew the news she was about to get. And judging from her mother's voice, she knew the news was good.
 
"She didn't tell me," Elizabeth said. "But I kind of knew."
 
When Schaefer opened the e-mail, she learned that years of hard work and preparation had paid off. The Rossville senior has been selected as a member of the 2021 All-National Concert Band by the National Association for Music Education.
 
Schaefer was one of nine flutists from across the nation chosen for the prestigious honor. She is the first student in Rossville history to make the All-National Honor Band. Last year, only four Kansans made the honor band, all from Class 6A schools in the Kansas City metro area.
 
Needless to say, achieving her goal impacted Schaefer, who is this week's Capitol Federal True Blue® Student of the Week.
 
"I don't remember much of that volleyball practice," Schaefer recalled. "It was exciting, but I also didn't believe it. It took like a week or so for me to realize I had made it and it wasn't a dream or fake."

 
The reality of it is Schaefer has been on this path for quite some time.
 
When she took up flute in the fifth grade, Schaefer doesn't necessarily recall why that was the instrument she chose.
 
"I think maybe it just looked cool to me," Schaefer said. "All the fifth-grade girls were like, 'Oh I want to play the flute.' It was just the thing girls play. Something just clicked with me. I'd had piano lessons, but it wasn't really my instrument until I saw the flute.
 
"I just like the tone of it mostly. You can play very smooth songs and it sounds very elegant. But you can also play marches and it still sounds really cool."
 
As with any new instrument there was an early learning curve in how to not only play it, but play it well. But Schaefer immediately threw herself into her new love and began taking private lessons in addition to her school band class.
 
She couldn't have asked for a better tutor during those early years, taking lessons from Teresa (Gentry) Lacock. A former Bulldawg herself, Lacock was the first Rossville student to earn All-State Honor Band recognition.
 
"She really helped me a lot," said Schaefer, who took lessons for four years from Lacock.
 
She also credited former Rossville band teacher Garrett Jones for her development.
 
"He encouraged me starting in sixth grade," she said. "He definitely was very helpful to me, improved me a lot. He really pushed me to my limit and instilled a lot of confidence in me. He was the first one that really believed in me and showed that to me."
 
By the time Schaefer hit high school, she was excelling. Her freshman year, she auditioned for her first honor band and was chosen to the John Philip Sousa honor band, which includes seventh, eighth and ninth graders.
 
As a sophomore, Schaefer made the All-KMEA Northeast District Honor Band for the first time. As a junior, she was All-District and All-State, earning first chair (the top position) for both. She also earned Rossville's John Philip Sousa Award, following in the footsteps of older brother, Dawson, who won in 2017-18 and played the trumpet.

 
"When I made All-State it made it clear that I wasn't too bad at this," Schaefer joked. "I worked really hard, every chance I got."
 
In May 2020, she began working on her dream to make the national honor band. It was good timing as COVID-19 shut down the final months of her sophomore music season as well as the numerous activities she's involved in.
 
Not only does Schaefer play in the band – she plays piccolo as well as flute for Rossville's concert and pep bands – she also has played volleyball for four years and softball for two (sophomore season canceled).
 
Carrying a 4.125 GPA, Schaefer is also a member of the National Honor Society, a member of the Future Business Leaders of America club, Rossville's senior class president and president of her 4-H club, the Rossville Rustlers.
 
"Time management is a pretty big thing for me," she said. "But I can't just sit. I always have to be doing something. When I do have spare time, I'm doing something.
 
"(During COVID shutdown) I practiced a lot more because I had nothing to do. I started practicing my district music and got it perfected. That was beneficial and a big reason I improved the past couple years. I was able to practice just one thing."
 
She got her audition piece for the National Honor Band last June and poured herself into it. Unlike her audition pieces for All-District and All-State where she had to perform certain parts of musical pieces, the national audition was a full-blown solo.
 
Schaefer said she made countless recordings of the solo audition before choosing on the one to submit for national consideration.
 
"It was challenging, but it's supposed to be because it's an All-National piece," she said. "It was a lot on the metronome just making sure I was on time, the notes were right and it was in a different key than flutes normally play. Practiced every day for a couple hours. I had tons of recordings to listen through and pick the right one."
 
She submitted her audition on Sept. 15 and had to wait a month to learn if she made it.
 
In most years, selection to the National Honor Band would include a trip to San Diego for a performance. However, with COVID restrictions still in place, this year's event will be held virtually.
 
Schaefer and her fellow band members will go through Zoom classes and rehearsal sessions from Jan. 22-24. Each member will record their piece with all the pieces then mixed together for the national performance.
 
Schaefer, who received a 1 rating for her solo at last year's state band festival – as well as a 1 rating as part of a flute quartet as a freshman – has plenty on her plate before her national band venture. In addition to her other activities, she's already working this year's progression, starting with auditioning this Saturday for the All-District team in Eudora.
 
That audition will be in-person, which she hasn't had to do for quite some time.
 
"I'm still kind of learning in-person auditions," she said. "But I'm sure I have more confidence now than I did in my last one, which was sophomore year for All-Districts."
 
In preparation, Schaefer has sought out performances in front of audiences to help put her at ease. She performs at her church during Christmas and Easter services and has played in the Marshall County community band.
 
Last month, she also played the Star Spangled Banner as a solo for her volleyball senior night.
 
"That's something I've always wanted to do," she said. "Any chance I get to perform in front of people, I take it. It can only help you out."
 
Schaefer plans to attend Emporia State and major in accounting, but will still be active in band at the school in some capacity. The legacy she leaves at Rossville, however, is one first-year band teacher Sarah Grose said is immeasurable.
 
"She is so talented," Grose said. "I got to hear her over the summer before school started. She came in and played and I was like, 'Well, she won't need a lot of help from me.' She puts in the time outside of this obviously and there are areas where she has way more expertise than I do for the flute.
 
"She's a great, natural leader. Other musicians get to hear her and match that tone. Having that as an example for other students as well, it's nice to have a person do the things she's done so they can strive for those things, too."