Student rising in worldwide singing competition through McDonald's

Chaotic sounds rise up the stairwells, as you enter the music department in the basement of Rockwell Hall.

Down here, among the large gray lockers and maze of studios and construction, is where music and theater major Cassondra Conrad can be found practicing and learning.

Conrad is one of 22 semi-finalists in McDonald's worldwide search for its most talented employee, The Voice of McDonald's.

"This competition was created to recognize (the employees') talents and to show off our employees," said director of marketing Kirby Moynihan.

Because the main requirement of the competition is that contestants must be employees, Conrad said she felt she had nothing to lose when her manager encouraged her to enter the competition. A pizza party was the prize for contestants who entered and had been chosen as one of the 22 semi-finalists.

"Honestly, I figured the least amount I could win was a crew party," she said. "What would I have to lose? Nothing. I could win the pizza party, which they got."

In August she received a call from her manager telling her she had been accepted into the competition.

"She signed up, and we knew she would at least make it to the semi-finals," said Robin Davies, manager of the Arcade McDonald's where Conrad works.

From here, the competition took her to Chicago to record a music video that is used for the voting portion of the competition via the McDonald's website.

She said she wanted her entry song to be something creative, so she decided to use a song that she had written.

"I kind of put it off and then literally the last day I could send it in I was at school for RA training and I just went to Moore 30 minutes before it was due and I sat down and did a song that I wrote," Conrad said.

Her creative idea worked. Soon Conrad was on an all-expense-paid trip.

"I got to go to Chicago and film a music video for the competition, which is a cool accomplishment for me, I think," she said.

Music lecturer Carolyn Jolley at Buffalo Stateis Conrad's voice teacher and is also one of her main supporters, along with her parents and her grandmother, Conrad said.

"(My grandmother) never really got to do what she wanted to do because she was a stay-at-home mom," Conrad said. "She's like, ‘Just do it. You only live once, and you'll live to regret it.'"

Conrad said she is determined to live her life as she wants, which means being involved in music and theater as much as possible.

"We encourage (our students) to go out there and do as much as they can do, as long as they're well prepared," Jolley said.

The next step of the competition is to make it to the top three from the 22 American semi-finalists. The video voting for this portion ended on Nov. 30. From there, the top 12 global finalists will compete in a week-long competition in Florida.

The grand prize for first place is $25,000. If she wins, Conrad said she plans to use the money for vocal programs, saving and preparing for her life after college, and to pay off some of her loans.

If she doesn't win the top prize, all she said she wants out of the competition is money to buy a new keyboard.

"The ultimate thing that I want, because we don't have practice rooms at the moment, is a keyboard," she said. "I want a really nice keyboard. If all I win is the $3,000, boom — a nice keyboard with the nice headphones, all decked out."

Though Conrad originally planned to go to school for pre-med, it was her high school choir director who told her to go for what she wanted. She said her parents weren't too happy about the switch at first, but are proud of her accomplishments now.

"I come home and my dad calls me a celebrity, ‘My little celebrity's home,'" she said.

Her plans for the near future include possibly going to graduate school for vocal performance or just going out into the world and performing. Conrad said she is leaning more toward graduate school. She is considering Oklahoma City University, Carnegie Mellon University and Florida State University.

"This just proves that I'm going in the right direction," Conrad said.

Conrad will find out on Dec. 15 if she has made it to the next round of the competition.

Jennifer Waters can be reached by email at waters.record@live.com.