Two Graduates Bring Their Voices to Commencement

Public health students are more than just their majors and disciplines. At this year’s graduation ceremonies for the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, two students will demonstrate just how much more they bring when they take to the stage to perform the National Anthem and Tulane’s alma mater.

Tess Fox says her faculty and fellow students may be surprised when she steps up to sing.

“Most, if not all, of my professors do not know that I am a singer,” she admits. “I have always kept these two parts of myself separate—not for any particular reason—but I always appreciate when they get to merge in some way.

Fox, who is from California, has been singing since she was 10 years old. She began performing rock music in venues such as the Troubadour, the House of Blues, and the Grove before shifting to classical music and musical theater. She will graduate Saturday with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Performance.

Similarly, Tyler Verrett has been singing for 24 years. Classically trained, he performs opera in French, Italian, and Latin, and is also well versed in jazz and gospel.

“Music has always been a central part of my life,” he says. “I don’t think I could ever do life without music and vocal performance.”

He will graduate with a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine degree.

Both students have had the opportunity to sing in a wide variety of settings. Verrett said that singing has taken him around the world, including performances as a soloist in Reykjavik, Iceland, and with a choir in Cologne, Germany. As an undergraduate at George Mason University, where he studied clinical health on the pre-med track, he sang with several groups, including University Singers Chamber Choir and the Anointed Vessels of Unity.

“They were my family,” he says.

Fox toured Spain as a soloist with a choir and has also appeared in repertory theater productions in Southern California. At Tulane she has performed with the Tulane Musical Theater and in several opera productions. She also spent a semester abroad studying voice at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and was selected as a soloist with the New Orleans Chamber Orchestra.

Both are honored to be singing at their own graduation ceremonies.

“I think it’s beautiful that I get to show this part of myself to my peers and faculty, whom I have come to really respect,” Fox says. “Singing at my graduation does add a little bit of pressure, but personally, I view this opportunity as a celebration.”

Verrett says he is elated to share this part of himself with the Tulane community.

“It heightens the experience,” he says. “It’s a culminating experience!”

According to Fox, singing and public health are more interconnected than many people might think.

“Public health has helped me understand people in a different way. With a greater understanding of people, I feel I am able to come back to music with a bit more comfort in telling the stories that music conveys.”

In turn, the discipline and attention to detail required in her music studies have also strengthened her work in public health.

“They balance each other out,” she says.

Both plan to keep music in their lives after graduation. Verrett spend the next year preparing for the MCAT as he works toward his goal of earning a medical degree, but he says he plans to continue singing wherever he can.

Fox will pursue a Master’s of Music in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

“I plan to look for research opportunities that involve studying music and Alzheimer's, and finding other unique ways to combine my education in both fields,” she says.