Congratulations UNT Spring 2025 Grads!

Brenda Hill

Applied Arts and Sciences

By Allicia Washington-White 

Few will understand how far Brenda Hill has come in her educational journey when she crosses the stage to receive her bachelor’s degree in May. Her path to graduation is a story rooted in perseverance, which spans states, storms and a spirit to succeed in her academic studies. 

“I’ve always been a person of pure determination,” Brenda says.

Before arriving at UNT, she worked as a certified nursing assistant on the critical care step-down unit at East Jefferson Hospital in her hometown of New Orleans. Just two months shy of earning her associate’s degree in health information management from Delgado Community College, her life was forever changed by the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Everything was lost. 

Although she stayed behind under the assumption the storm would blow over, she also ensured the safety of her three boys, aged 17 and under, by sending them to Beaumont, TX, with a relative. She lost contact with them for two days and would not be reunited with them again until nearly one week later.

“It was a tearful moment when they drove away without me,” she says of the day they said goodbye. “It still makes me emotional.”

Katrina forced her to leave their destroyed home. She packed up all she owned, which was seven work uniforms, and traveled to Beaumont to be reunited with her children. Shortly after, Brenda and her children moved from Beaumont to Plano and found temporary housing for evacuees at the Super 8 Hotel.

Brenda anticipated returning to the Crescent City, but realized she needed to start over completely and restabilize herself in Texas.

“I wanted to go back home to New Orleans, but I had lost everything, and Texas became our new home,” she says. 

The transition was difficult as her children enrolled in new schools and she had a limited support system, but Brenda was finally able to return to work in the medical field. During her first year of employment at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, she met and fell in love with her now husband, Byron.

She and Byron settled with their newly blended family in Carrollton in March 2007. With a little more support in her personal life, Brenda shifted her focus back to her education. She sought to complete her associate's degree at Dallas College Mountain View Campus, but her specific medical billing and coding program was discontinued only months later.

Rather than give up, she deferred her academic goals, continuing to work to save for her education and taking time off from school to attend her children’s extracurricular activities and focus on life in her new state. “The people, the schools and the [Plano] community showed up for us when my children were little,” Brenda says.  

Years passed and the children grew. 

Now an empty nester, Brenda decided it was time to finish her associate’s degree. She found herself at Collin College in the health community program, eager to start the Fall of 2018 semester.

Despite the turmoil of taking classes at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she finally did it. Brenda completed her associate of applied sciences in health information management and a Level 1 billing and coding certificate in 2020. “There was nothing stopping me now; I wanted to keep going,” Brenda says. 

While thinking of her next steps, she attended two UNT commencement ceremonies for her best friend and a friend’s daughter and said to herself, “This is where I’m going to get my bachelor’s degree.”

Brenda landed at UNT at Frisco and found her place in the applied arts and sciences program, perfect for students with substantive work experience. To help finance her education, she took time off between semesters and took fewer classes per semester while working full-time.

Still, she was determined.

At times, she faced imposter syndrome and feelings of uncertainty. “I wasn’t always confident, especially being older than most of my classmates. But I embraced them, and they embraced me.” Brenda credits Katie Hermes, student services coordinator at the Center for Belonging and Engagement and the First-Generation Success Center as someone who made graduating feel possible. 

Her path has never been linear, but she never lost sight of her goals. “I did not think I was going to be able to do it,” she says. “After losing everything, I still found love and reached the finish line!”

Excited to take off a year after graduation to bask in her accomplishment, Brenda plans to return to UNT for a master’s degree. Though unsure of what she will study, Brenda says she’ll continue to live by her mantra: “Aim high and reach beyond the stars!”

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Qihang Lu

Master’s in Vocal Performance

By Bess Whitby

As a child, Qihang Lu listened to his grandfather play the erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument dating back to the seventh century. Since a love of music runs in his family, it was no surprise that he also decided to pursue a musical career.

“My grandfather is a professor of erhu in China, so I began learning erhu when I was five years old,” he says. “But when I started university, I realized I had vocal talents as well.”

Before coming to the U.S. to study at UNT, Qihang earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Central China Normal University, one of the top three universities of its kind in the country. In addition to his academic studies, he took pedagogy and performance courses while teaching large classes of students. He also opened a music studio for students pursuing their own music degrees.

Despite his achievements, Qihang knew his educational journey wasn’t over: he wanted to pursue a field that would provide him with plenty of job opportunities. He admired the faculty in UNT’s College of Music, so he applied to the vocal performance master’s program — and was accepted.

“The faculty are so nice and helpful, and Denton is a lovely city,” he says.

Once on campus, Qihang quickly got to work. He studied and practiced as much as possible to ensure his academic success. Living and working in a different country was challenging in unexpected ways; everything from making phone calls to using the internet was a new experience. But Qihang kept moving toward his goals.

“It was a big change for me, but I knew I would be okay,” he says.

Qihang received high praise from faculty and his fellow students at his master’s vocal recital. It wasn’t just any performance: it was his first-ever full recital as a singer. Qihang doesn’t describe the experience as happy or sad. It was more of a full-circle moment in his academic journey.

“It really fulfilled and completed my voice study experience,” he says.

Now that he’s conquered his master’s degree in vocal performance, Qihang is a top applicant for doctoral programs in both the U.S. and Canada. He plans to teach vocal performance at the university level.

“It’s interesting to teach undergraduate students because they’re still young and have so many new ideas and goals,” he says.

But as Qihang prepares for his future, he says one moment in his recent past will stay with him. His master’s recital included a few songs that visibly resonated with his audience.

“I used instruments and sang Chinese folk songs, and everyone was very moved,” he says. “It was a very good moment.”