Name: Kevin Fullerton
Major at ISU: Bachelor of Music
Graduation Year: 2000
Hometown: Fort Dodge, IA
Current Residence: Brookings, SD
What were you involved in during your time at ISU?
I was involved in the Jazz Ensembles, Wind Ensemble, and the Orchestra.
What do you currently do for a living?
I am currently the Director of Career Development at South Dakota State University.
Can you share a particularly interesting or inspiring story that occurred in your career?
When I started college, I had a very clear idea. I wanted to be able to be a professor of trombone at a university where I would teach and perform low brass instruments. I worked tirelessly during my bachelor’s degree, practicing several hours every day, and at graduation, I had the next step in place. I was recruited to go to graduate school at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. While working on my masters in Lincoln, I had so many wonderful musical experiences. I performed in the orchestra, jazz ensemble, a trombone quartet and directed one of the jazz ensembles. I was able to perform in off-campus ensembles, develop my studio of students, and develop great friendships through those musical experiences. It confirmed my desire for a professorship, but I also met my wife. In 2002, I finished my masters in performance and we moved to Kansas City. I found a day job and started to build my trombone studio in the evenings. The years we lived in Kansas City were difficult. My wife discovered the graduate school program she enrolled in wasn’t for her, my day job was toxic, and in the spring of 2003, my father died due to a brain tumor. His death shook me to my core. I continued to try to build a music career teaching and performing, but in 2004, I developed focal dystonia. This shut down my ability to perform so I pursued further education in music. In 2007 I earned a masters in musicology from the University of South Dakota which led to pursuing a PhD in Musicology from the University of Kansas. During my PhD work, I started an unexpected career change. I had a GTA during my coursework in the musicology program, but then I needed to find employment to help support myself and my family. I was hired for a support position in the Office of Experiential Education at the School of Pharmacy. Since then, I have worked my way up in the department and now supervise the support position. Curiosity and a growth mindset turned this work into an opportunity. I could have treated the work as a day job and moved on, but something about this work drives me. The Director and I intuitively connect, making the work gratifying, challenging, and open to grow as needed. Once I acclimated to the PharmD curriculum, it was clear how many of my skills and experiences transferred to this work.
Are there other ways that you participate in your community?
I am involved in different programs at South Dakota State University which help students focus on their professional development and leadership development.
How did your time at ISU prepare you for your career?
The skills I rely on daily were developed through my musical training at Iowa State University such as:
• Ability to collaborate
• Ability to see the bigger picture
• Patience with nuance
• Self-awareness
• Self-discipline
• Project management
• Performance Assessment
• Classroom management
What was your favorite class while you were at ISU? Why?
My trombone lessons with Dr. David Stuart were formative and inspiring. He helped me sort out many different problems both musical and non-musical.
Any words of wisdom for current or prospective students?
My experience going through career transitions has taught me several crucial lessons that I carry with me daily:
• Family is everything.
• You are not your art.
• The importance of saying “yes,” and the importance of knowing when to say “no”.
• Diverse connections are important.
• There are always multiple paths.
• Musicians are consistently undervalued.
• Musicians generally do a terrible job communicating their skill sets.
• Work hard, even though I could not establish a career as a music educator, I continue to educate students in different ways.
I am currently the Director of Career Development at South Dakota State University. I am grateful for the lessons learned at Iowa State University. It was a wonderful place to develop and hone my skills.