Bryana Appley – 2017 Live Más Scholarship recipient, 2019 & 2020 Live Más Scholarship renewal recipient, and graduate from Point Park University.
I was fortunate enough to collaborate on a musical project to commemorate the Live Más Scholarship Class of 2020 and 2021. My name is Bryana Appley, and I graduated from Point Park University with a Degree in Sports Arts and Entertainment Business Management. I have a passion for music and live events. I am a three-time Live Más Scholarship recipient. My co-collaborators on this project are also Live Más Scholars. They are Kate Cosentino and Chima Enwere. Kate is a Music Business and Songwriting graduate from Belmont University. Chima graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music (Music Industry) from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
2020 was an incredibly challenging year; we were all affected by the lockdowns and unfortunate circumstances. This hit especially hard for those graduating from high school or college. We all share a special connection from graduating amidst a global pandemic. Ceremonies and plans were canceled, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities felt stripped away. But if there’s anything we learned, it’s that perseverance goes a long way. No matter the circumstance, we will come out stronger and a little bit wiser because of it. This is our story. This is our celebration.
What’s really special about this project for me was the musical collaboration with Kate and Chima. We chose to cover “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus because it just felt like the most applicable song that captured what we all lived through. In the video, Chima plays the piano, and Kate and I sing together. We asked other Live Más Scholars to be a part of the video by sending their graduation photos and information on the schools they attended. It was awesome to reflect on the connections the Live Más Scholarship has given us while making this video. The Taco Bell Foundation always inspires us to be creative, collaborative and to turn every hardship into an opportunity. I’d like to think that’s what we did with this video, and I cannot wait to see what future collaborations will look like among all of our creative scholars in this community.