ASHEVILLE, N.C. — One Buncombe County Schools student is achieving her goals to the beat of her own drum, while also becoming a female role model for many younger musicians she teaches. 

“I know that I’m part of this big sound, this big community, big family at this point, where I know that if one of us were to mess up, or if something were to happen, we’d always be there for each other,” Clyde A. Erwin High School student Yoana Cardenas said.

Cardenas feels like everything around her becomes a blur as she picks up the bass clarinet. 

“I kind of feel like everything does disappear,” Cardenas said. “Like, I don’t realize the audience. I don’t look at the audience.”

This isn’t the only instrument she feels that connection with.

“I also play the baritone,” Cardenas said. “I play the saxophone. I’ve learned the trumpet, and I’ve also learned the trombone.”

She didn’t realize when she first entered the world of music that she would carry this passion until college.

“I genuinely thought, I was like, ‘I’ll play an instrument, learn it and then I’ll never touch it again afterwards,’” Cardenas reflected. “But here I am, six years later, playing the same bass clarinet.”

Cardenas has worked jobs two to three days of the week, on top of school work, and then participating with and teaching band students.

“All my courses are honors,” she said. “I’ve taken two AP courses, and I’ve focused myself, especially heavily on things like, ‘I have to do good, I have to do this, I have to be high in my class.’”

She realized she could achieve her goals by taking them one step at a time and being patient. 

“I overall just took the decision, I was like, ‘I shouldn’t burn myself out because putting myself out only means that later on I will just give up halfway through,’” Cardenas said.

She is confident that she makes her family proud with her achievements, both academically and on stage.

“My mom is from Mexico, and my dad is Hondurian,” she said. “I’m a first-generation student, and I’m the first one to graduate, and I hope to make them proud.”

Being a leader and representing women in the band room has become a part of her. She frequently goes to the middle school to help the students learn their instruments, and she has grown to be many of their mentors. 

While showing other students how they can achieve their dreams, Cardenas has continued reaching for her own. She plans to attend Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville after she graduates.

Sen. Julie Mayfield presented her with a $1,000 scholarship to help begin the next chapter of her life. 

“Knowing that ‘Oh, I actually have received this scholarship, I’ve been accepted into four schools, and I’ve received a lot of scholarships from each of those schools,’ it’s just surreal to me,” she said. “I’m like ‘Oh, I’m actually growing up! I’m actually at the point of my life where I have to decide what I want to do with my life.’”