Hardly a sporting event passes without the UCLA Bruin Marching Band cheering on the athletes, and as part of the band, third-year bioengineering student Jessica Schlosser has helped to keep up the energy. Schlosser joined the band during her first year, and before long, she was already expressing interest in serving the band as a drum major. Instead of applying right away, however, she applied to be the flute section leader, a position she has now held for the past two years. As section leader, Schlosser led the marching band flutes to memorize and excel in all of the halftime show music as well as the songs played in the stands.
“There are a lot of reasons to choose to have a negative attitude (during rehearsal), but there are also plenty of reasons to choose to have a positive attitude. Helping people choose to have a positive attitude is really the main role of section leader, and I think she’s been very effective at that,” said Gordon Henderson, director of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band. Besides performing during halftime shows at the Rose Bowl, Schlosser also performs for numerous other sporting events and rallies. She has traveled with the band across not only the United States, but overseas to Hong Kong as well. Recently, she auditioned for and earned the position of drum major for the upcoming school year.
“Selecting Jessica as a drum major going into her senior year is unusual because the expectation is that she’s going to be able to walk in and be effective from day one, and there’s not going be a learning period for her,” Henderson said. “She’s very articulate, and for drum major, we want someone who is going to have a commanding presence … and I think she has that kind of presence. That’s a big part of it, just the physical personal presence that she projects even without saying a word. She’s going to command attention right away.”