06/20/2026
“As a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, I never imagined a scholarship would carry me from a college classroom to a concert stage an ocean away. Yet that is the gift I was given, and I am more grateful than words can express.
It was my profound privilege to travel to Sofia, Bulgaria, and Thessaloniki, Greece with the Credo Community Choir of Dallas. In Sofia, we shared the stage with the Sofia Ladies International Choir and, at Sofia University, the Angel Manolov Academic Choir. To sing among such accomplished ensembles was humbling and exhilarating.
As someone long captivated by history and Greek mythology, I could scarcely believe we performed within the Polycentric Museum of Aigai, the first capital of ancient Macedonia and the world Alexander the Great came from. As we sang, a storm broke open above us, the rain and the acoustics turning the moment into something I will never forget.
At the Hariseio Nursing Home, we sang for residents, many living with dementia. Though we shared no common language, one individual told me afterward that they understood every word — not from the lyrics, but from our faces and the way we sang. It was there that I understood music’s highest purpose is to be given to others.
I return home a better musician and a better person — endlessly grateful to Credo and to everyone whose generosity made this journey possible.”
- Anya Bhandari, Major: Business Administration, Class of 2029