Still only in the 10th grade, Erica Rogers has been awarded three times for outstanding work in the arts.
First, there was her gold medal for having the highest marks in the province for her grade seven speech arts exams in 2021. Next was the gold medal for speech arts the following year.
And on Feb. 19, Erica performed at UBC and received a gold medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music, the national standard for fine arts testing.
“It was really amazing,” said Rogers. “There was a lot of other performers in different things, there were guitarists, and violinists, and pianists, and singers. All the top in the province, and I got to be there, seeing them all. It was an amazing experience.”
Rogers’ mother Christina Hansen is a speech arts instructor, and Rogers found that she had a passion for music and performance from the early age of five. Now, Rogers plays the cello, the piano, and is a vocalist.
“I’ve always had a strong passion for singing. I think over the past few years, that passion has grown stronger,” said Rogers. “I wouldn’t have been able to get this far if I didn’t want to do as much as I do. It takes a lot of work and time, so I’m thankful for my mom helping me with that.”
“I’m proud of myself, I can’t believe I’ve made it this far.”
Her passions aren’t limited to speech and music, either. Rogers is also interested in visual arts and painting, and plays on the Terrace ringette team.
This year Rogers will be taking her level nine speech arts exam, which includes a theoretical component involving phonetics, public speech writing, theatre, and literature interpretation.
She will also be competing in the Pacific Northwest Music Festival this spring as a vocalist.
“I will be doing singing this year, and I’m very, very excited for that,” she said. “I haven’t done singing in the festival for a few years now, or speech arts, due to COVID. It’s really exciting to come back and be on the stage again.”
“I encourage people to come up to the festival because there’s so many young artists and musicians that are presenting in the community, and it’s an amazing experience to see everyone there.”
As for her plans after graduation, Rogers has a few potential ideas, but is still considering her options.
“I’ve taken an interest in speech therapy, or behavioural intervention, working with children in special education. But I’m not entirely sure yet.”