The Judith Enyeart Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, or “RCASH,” offers students a variety of academic studies and professional opportunities. Art, theatre, dance, music, communication, history, sociology, languages, criminology and political science are just some of RCASH’s programs.

Opportunities are indeed abundant. Just ask Veronika Yerina, Rocky Lane and Caroline Wolfe.

Yerina, Lane and Wolfe are all pursuing non-RCASH degrees. Yerina, a junior, is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in biology. Lane will graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science in accounting. Wolfe will graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics and will continue her studies through Missouri State’s accelerated master’s program.

Yet these students are also supplementing their degrees with arts-intensive programs and courses. For each of them, there are no contradictions. Studying the arts has improved their professional prospects. They also believe it has made them better humans.

Veronika Yerina: feeding the soul

Yerina is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in addition to her biology degree. She hopes to become a professional opera singer.

Her success depends in part on extensive knowledge of the physiology of singing, she believes. That’s why she chose to supplement her music degree with a biology degree.

“Both majors are equally important to me in understanding my purpose in life,” Yerina said. “Science is a way for me to learn more about the world we live in and to appreciate the intricacies within it. We are incredibly structured and ‘mechanical’ in physical design, as I am learning in my anatomy courses. But we have a soul to feed, too.”

Encountering a beautiful art form

When she first arrived at Missouri State, Yerina had no interest in opera.

“I started with the vocal performance major, which is geared towards opera, but I was like,’ I’m gonna do musical theater when I graduate. I hate opera,’” she said.

Things changed during her sophomore year when Yerina attended a national voice competition. “I was like, ‘Well, this is what it sounds like when it’s a quality performance,’” she recalled. Yerina was inspired.

“At that moment I realized it’s not just obnoxious singing. It’s a beautiful form of art that relies on a holistic approach to the body,” she said. “[This] is partially why I’m in the science department, because the human voice is your instrument. Your body is your instrument. You can’t just wake up and start singing. You have to take care of everything else.”

“Now I’m in opera and I’m all in it,” Yerina said. “I’m just like, wow, I get to make pretty noises, and it’s really just fun now.”

Expanded connections, inspirational faculty

Currently, Yerina participates in opera theatre and in the Chorale. Once she identified her career passion, she found ready access to numerous educational and professional opportunities through RCASH.

RCASH travel funding, for example, allowed Yerina to “focus on the competition itself rather than the financial burden it might have brought.” This support also helped her expand her professional connections.

“I have met so many singers from other schools and regions that are passionate about the same things I am,” she said. “It connects me to people in my future career field.”

Another RCASH asset is its faculty. Yerina’s guide and cheerleader is Dr. Carol Chapman, her voice teacher for three years.

“She’s been with me through a lot of things, my ups and downs, losing competitions, winning competitions,” Yerina said. “But she’s always had faith in me, and she has done a wonderful job of not placing my worth on my accolades as a musician.”

Director of Choral Studies and Clif and Gail Smart Professor Dr. Cameron LaBarr represents another important influence in Yerina’s musical education.

“He’s very focused, and he demands excellence, but in that very human way,” she said. “He understands that we’re people, we’re students.”

Building connections through music

Yerina loves how singing brings people of all personalities and learning styles together.

“Extrovert, introvert—it doesn’t really mean a lot because you’re all there for one shared purpose, which is to create art. That’s what I really get out of my classes,” she said.

“Connecting with others through singing is a deeply vulnerable experience, as your body is your physical instrument that brings the emotional aspects of performing together,” Yerina added. “Music is what connects us with things beyond what we can explain, and that is essential for humanity.”

Rocky Lane: curating kindness

Along with his accounting degree, Lane graduates this spring with a minor in theatre. After gaining more professional experience, he plans to pursue his Certified Public Accounting and Certified Financial Planner designations and start his own firm. One long-term goal is to assist professional artists with their financial needs.

As vice president of Missouri State’s chapter of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), Lane already has experience in this. In 2025, he represented FPA at the annual theatre and dance Wellness Week, giving a presentation on basic financial planning.

“It’s about helping people,” Lane said. “We all struggle in different avenues of our lives, and if finance is one those struggles for you, then I’m always happy to lend a hand.”

Lane enjoys giving financial advice to theatre and dance students. He knows many of them, having taken theatre classes together.

“All the people I’ve met through this program have their own dreams and passions and quirks that shine through in ways that I don’t really see anywhere else,” he explained. “It fulfills that part of my soul that craves uniqueness in every interaction.”

Lane described growing up in unpredictable financial circumstances. This spurred him to seek a career that would ensure financial stability. He chose accounting.

He never gave up his passion for acting, however. Now, with accounting degree in hand, he hopes to merge both.

Building confidence, modeling compassion

Lane’s acting classes have been meaningful in other ways. As an example, he singled out his classes with Laine Cordell.

Not only did Lane gain self-confidence in Cordell’s classes, he witnessed humanity at its best. In the middle of one class, Lane recalled, Cordell paused the class to assist a student who was struggling. With empathy and compassion, Cordell listened to the student and later helped locate needed resources afterward.

“The more I think on that, the more I respect it,” Lane said.

Lane also recalled the compassion he received from Dr. Chris Herr when his mother died in the spring of 2024. During finals week, Lane had to be with his family when his mother’s condition worsened. He missed his final exam in Herr’s class.

Yet when Lane explained his situation, Herr told him to take his time. “Without hesitation, he offered me some grace,” Lane said.

Understanding people to serve them better

Taking acting classes probably hasn’t improved Lane’s ability to balance budgets. They have, however, made him a better professional, he believes, simply because they shed light on human behavior.

“These types of courses help you connect with people,” Lane said. “They help you understand people. They help you know what it means to be a person living in a world created by people and occupied by people.”

“Taking these kinds of courses helps to humanize you,” he added. “Always remember that care, kindness and compassion are important attributes to curate.”

Caroline Wolfe: “I did not want to stop dancing”

In addition to her math degrees, Wolfe is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. She earns that degree this spring.

“I have always loved dancing, ever since I was a little girl,” Wolfe said. “When I graduated high school, I knew that I did not want to stop dancing. I wanted to keep learning and growing in my dance knowledge.”

Wolfe hopes to teach dance and math at the collegiate level.

“Math was just so beautiful!”

Wolfe chose math as her second degree because she loved the discipline’s patterns and rules. “Math was just so beautiful!”

While at Missouri State, Wolfe grew increasingly interested in how math and dance concepts intersect. As a result, her study of both disciplines led her to choreograph dances based on mathematical principles like the infinite nature of Pascal’s Triangle.

During the 2025 spring dance concert, Wolfe presented a piece based on the Fibonacci Sequence and its connections to the Golden Ratio and Pascal’s Triangle. She will present this same piece at the American College Dance Association (ACDA) formal concert, where she will receive feedback from three professional adjudicators.

Nurturing creativity and professionalism

RCASH has been instrumental in nurturing Wolfe’s creativity while improving her career prospects.

“Through RCASH, I have had the opportunity to attend ACDA conferences three different times,” Wolfe said. “ACDA is a great networking conference, as we get to work with, learn from, and dance with many other collegiate dancers and professionals in dance.”

In addition, Wolfe has taken advantage of the many class options theatre and dance offers. She learned safe dance practices in her pedagogy class. Wolfe even took a theatre lighting course and now can work with lighting designers and even light her own dance pieces.

“[This was] an opportunity that I never expected when coming to college,” she said.

Like Yerina and Lane, Wolfe praised her RCASH instructors. She wouldn’t be at the level she is now, she stated, without them, especially Azaria Hogans, Jessica Madden and Mike Foster.

“I have grown so much as a person because of the amazing faculty in RCASH.”

Better professionals, better humans

Yerina, Lane and Wolfe had no trouble explaining why students should take classes—any classes—in the RCASH catalog.

“On a personal level, you learn more about yourself and become more reflective,” Wolfe said. “On a more professional level, you gain invaluable critical thinking skills that translate across many different programs.”

Studying the arts readies students to encounter new experiences, Yerina said.

“There is so much more to their person than their required courses set by the university,” she noted. “Exploring something new may make them connect with parts of themselves they never knew of or forgot about. Also, it forces your brain to focus on something else and can prevent burnout from your major.”

Missouri State is a place where students can get their degree and obtain jobs, Lane said. But it is also a place to learn about the world, about people and about yourself. Learning opportunities are there for the taking.

“The more you utilize that, the more you get out of it what you want to,” Lane added. “You can do anything that you want to. All you have to do is figure out how, so don’t let that hurdle stop you.”

“Pursue everything genuinely, regardless of what that looks like for you.”

Photo credits: Lynn Lansdown unless otherwise stated.

Reynolds College blog posts are human researched, written and reviewed unless otherwise indicated.