Music is her passion. She loves to sing, she loves to play instruments. She loves hearing beautiful melodies and harmonies. New choir teacher Jennifer Colton-Fowler comes to work every morning to teach her students self-confidence, how to play the piano and how to use their singing voices.

“I do what I do because I love music. And if you love music, you need to be sharing that,” Colton-Fowler said. “My favorite way to share it is with others that are learning about it, so that they get it from someone who is passionate about it.”

Colton-Fowler’s family influenced her musical interests. Many varieties of music were frequently played around her house. She was exposed to both hymns and an eclectic music taste, and brought in classical when she started piano. When she was younger, Colton-Fowler had participated in church choirs and was in band in middle school. She sang in more collegiate choirs afterward.

Colton-Fowler originally didn’t intend to be a music major in college. She wanted to take a different route instead, and be a deaf education major.

“Fortunately, in my first semester of college, I realized that I was wrong,” Colton-Fowler said. “So, I went to music and never went back. I like to think that I traded one battle for another. Teaching in deaf education is difficult, and I shifted into music education which presented its own challenges as well.”

Living in Brownsville, Texas, Colton-Fowler learned of a new choir and piano teaching job placement here at Texas High. She applied and was interviewed using FaceTime. She soon picked up and moved to Texarkana after being notified that she was awarded the job. Texas High is the fourth public school she has taught at.

Colton-Fowler plans to keep making a mark on the lives of her students with her teaching ability.

“I want to keep teaching them what I know, teaching them to sound good,” Colton-Fowler said. “And trying to have as much fun as I can while doing it.”