{"id":33270,"date":"2017-04-27T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=33270"},"modified":"2017-05-01T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T19:52:11","slug":"royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOur Royal Pride\u201d<\/strong> is an occasional series celebrating Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s undergraduate students who contribute to campus life in extraordinary ways in addition to their academic pursuits.\u00a0These students enthusiastically create their own niches, constantly re-defining what it means to be an EMU Royal student \u201cLike No Other.\u201d Read more profiles here<\/a>. Nominate a student with an email to news-editor@emu.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Josh Calderon didn\u2019t expect to be won over by athletics. As a history buff with a passion for music, Calderon says that sports weren\u2019t part of his life growing up. But that\u2019s changed for the junior, who single-handedly revived Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s pep band<\/a> last year and is now its leader and primary composer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The EMU pep band, which Josh Calderon helped to revitalize and now leads, brings music and entertainment into Yoder Arena. (EMU file photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The community aspect of D-III collegiate sports drew him in, he says. His new involvement\u2014and the joy he finds in helping to create a positive atmosphere\u2014might be the beginning of a new career path.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really cool to see how you bring people together to cheer for that one thing, or be there for other people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Calderon plays all brass instruments, composes and leads too<\/h3>\n

Calderon\u2019s musical abilities are what led him to athletics in the first place. In sixth grade, when Calderon walked into the middle school band room, \u201cthe director looks right at me, and without me even trying any of the instruments yet, she says, \u2018I know you\u2019ll play tuba.\u2019 and I go, \u2018okay, that\u2019s fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Middle school band was such a positive experience that Calderon knew he would continue playing music throughout his life.<\/p>\n

He went on to learn all the major brass instruments. During his senior year, Spotswood High School started a pep band, and Calderon fell in love with that format of playing. Attracted to EMU because of its values, he was disappointed there was no pep band. During his first semester, he played for James Madison University\u2019s \u201cMarching Royal Dukes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Josh Calderon composes most of the music that the pep band plays. The Spotswood High alumnus can plays all the brass instruments. (EMU file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At EMU, he started envisioning a pep band, a concept encouraged by music professor Ryan Keebaugh<\/a> and the athletic department<\/a>. The Royals pep band played at their first EMU basketball game in December of 2015, and Calderon discovered an athletic community he wanted to contribute to. He writes almost all the music the pep band performs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, when you walk home, your team could have lost. And yet, you\u2019re still joined in this \u2018band\u2019 of other people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the fans and the athletes enjoy a game more when the EMU Pep Band is there, and Josh is a big reason for that, both as the director of the band and as a fan of the game,\u201d says Sports Information Director James De Boer<\/a>. \u201cPersonally, Josh has unique abilities and an internal drive which have stretched and invigorated me in promoting EMU athletics. Simply put, he is a lot of fun to work with.”<\/p>\n

Questions always answered by faculty mentors<\/h3>\n

Faculty and staff support have helped guide many of Calderon\u2019s interests. He recently added a photography minor<\/a> to his history major<\/a>, both because \u201cit required me to go out and think in a different way\u201d and the Visual and Communication Arts professors are accessible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can walk up there [to the department suite] at any given time and ask a question, and if they\u2019re not busy, it will be answered. And usually there\u2019s a follow-up question!\u201d<\/p>\n

With no time in his schedule for a photography class this semester, Calderon is currently working on a self-directed project about mental illness. He photographed a friend, who is a trained dancer, portraying depression and anxiety through choreography while covered in various colored powders.<\/p>\n

Calderon cites similar faculty encouragement as one of the best aspects of the history program. He also has pre-law<\/a> and political science minors.<\/p>\n

History plays into Calderon\u2019s strength in research and love of learning. But he doesn\u2019t see himself becoming a historian, or lawyer, or photographer, or band director (at least not professionally). Calderon credits De Boer\u2019s pep band support and personal character for influencing his career aspirations, which are now turned towards sports marketing and communications. He\u2019s also shadowed his girlfriend\u2019s uncle at work, as a youth hockey liaison for the Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust seeing how excited these kids were, just to come play on the ice \u2026 it was seeing that that brought me to the idea that I also really enjoy being in these environments,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a need for happiness, and I think that sometimes, not for everybody, but sometimes sports fills that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOur Royal Pride\u201d is an occasional series celebrating Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s undergraduate students who contribute to campus life in extraordinary ways in addition to their academic pursuits.\u00a0These students enthusiastically create ... read more about Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7931,4516,5583,14715,5595,5597,14139,12507],"tags":[15918],"feature":[17427,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-33270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-athletics","category-campus-community","category-campus-life","category-history","category-liberal-arts","category-student-profiles","category-vaca","tag-ryan-keebaugh","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nOur Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cOur Royal Pride\u201d is an occasional series celebrating Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s undergraduate students who contribute to campus life in extraordinary ways in addition to their academic pursuits.\u00a0These students enthusiastically create\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-27T18:04:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-01T19:52:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/\",\"name\":\"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-27T18:04:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-01T19:52:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership - EMU News","og_description":"\u201cOur Royal Pride\u201d is an occasional series celebrating Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s undergraduate students who contribute to campus life in extraordinary ways in addition to their academic pursuits.\u00a0These students enthusiastically create","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2017-04-27T18:04:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-01T19:52:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/","name":"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-27T18:04:08+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-01T19:52:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/04\/20170317-Josh-Calderon-and-James-De-Boer-1.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/royal-pride-multi-talented-josh-calderon-fan-history-photography-invigorates-yoder-arena-pep-band-leadership\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Our Royal Pride: Multi-talented Josh Calderon, a fan of history and photography, invigorates Yoder Arena with pep band leadership"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245","name":"admin","sameAs":["http:\/\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33270"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33281,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33270\/revisions\/33281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33270"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=33270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}