Graduate will trumpet her success

By HAROLD GWIN
Vindicator education writer
YOUNGSTOWN -- Angie Shelton of North Bloomfieldisn't sure why she was picked to represent the student body at Sunday's YSU fall commencement, but she's honored to do it.
She will take the stage in Beeghly Center at 2 p.m. along with YSU administrators, educators, dignitaries and Stephen Bartolin Jr., a 1975 YSU graduate and the chairman, president and chief executive of The Broadmoor, a hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo. Bartolin, a native of Hubbard, is the commencement speaker and will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
"They just asked me," said Shelton when asked why the university chose her to deliver the student address. Perhaps the fact that she is a nontraditional student was a factor, she said.
"It's an honor. I really appreciate the opportunity," Shelton said.
Musical talent
She has played the trumpet since she was in the fifth grade, with the Warren Junior Military Band and Maplewood High School Band, but she said she gave up any plans of attending college when, at age 18, she married Lucas Shelton just a week after graduation from Maplewood High School in 1992.
She had two daughters, Robin (now 13) and Rebecca (now 10) and thought she would spend her time as a housewife and mother. But some friends who were housewives went back to school to earn college degrees, prompting her to think about a career of her own.
"I really enjoy teaching," she said, noting that she gave trumpet lessons for years after getting married. She also plays piano but readily admits that the trumpet is her first musical love.
"We've always had a musical family," she said, adding that she comes from a long line of musically inclined people.
She wasn't sure she could manage both college and a family but met with a YSU professor who encouraged her and helped her get enrolled in the Dana School of Music in the College of Fine and Performing Arts.
In addition to her studies, she has played in YSU Concert Bands, the Marching Pride and the YSU Wind Ensemble. She played with the Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in New York in March. She's also a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
Her family has been very supportive of her efforts, she said.
"It was rough on them, but they stepped up and they helped out," she said.
Highest honors
Shelton will be one of those graduating Sunday, having earned summa cum laude academic honors with her bachelor of music education degree.
Her immediate future involves finding a public school job teaching instrumental music, she said.
About 600 students will receive degrees at the ceremony, including eight students receiving doctoral degrees in educational leadership, the only doctoral degree offered by YSU.
gwin@vindy.com