Written by Sarah Chocron ’25, Morehead-Cain Scholar Media Team member. The following story, the last in a four-part series, highlights the many ways that the scholar body creates community and connection as college students at UNC–Chapel Hill.

For a first-year student on a campus as large as UNC–Chapel Hill’s, finding a sense of connection can be difficult.

Foluwa Agbebi ’25 has always found music to be a catalyst for forging unexpected friendships, as well as for learning and performing at a high level. During his first semester at Carolina, he decided to join Carolina’s largest musical group, the Marching Tar Heels.

Foluwa has been playing both the alto and tenor saxophone since the sixth grade, and he was in the marching band at South Iredell High School in Statesville, North Carolina, for his entire high school career. Although he didn’t originally intend to join “The Pride of the ACC” (as the Marching Tar Heels is traditionally known as), the first-year scholar decided to participate following encouragement from friends in the band.

The athletics pep group practices twice a week from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., with some occasional Friday night practices to prepare for game days. The Marching Tar Heels fosters community through band-wide events throughout the year and within individual instrument sections, whose members gather to eat dinner after practice and hang out on Friday nights.

Foluwa recommends continuing marching band into college to anyone who wants to meet new people outside of their “typical” circles and to engage in the often thrilling experience of musical performance. He says he especially enjoys “the idea of contributing to something bigger” than himself, which manifests when all of the individual musical parts come together to create the booming sounds that students and football fans enjoy at halftime.

Foluwa plans to continue practicing music in the spring semester (after the marching season ends) through the University’s array of other bands.

You can learn more about the Marching Tar Heels through UNC Bands.

About the author

Sarah Chocron ’25 of Wichita, Kansas, is a writer, freelance web designer, and musician. On the Morehead-Cain Scholar Media Team, Sarah covers the selections and alumni beats, with a focus on tech.

The first-year scholar graduated in spring 2021 from Wichita Collegiate School, where she served as editor-in-chief of her school’s literary magazine and led programming and marketing for the robotics team.

Sarah is a co-founder of Griatitude Coffee co., a pop-up coffee shop (led by Ria Patel ’25 and also co-founded by Sasha Surkin, UNC–Chapel Hill ’25) with affordable specialty drinks for students in the Chapel Hill area. She plans to pursue a double major in information science and history with a minor in cognitive science.