"I got the tassel at Columbia State," says commercial entertainment alumnae and Williamson County resident Rachel Gaines Hockett (pictured, middle).
Hockett, daughter of Dove Award Winning Artists Billy and Sarah Gaines, attended our Williamson County Campus in 2003 and 2004 after growing up in Franklin. She went on to graduate cum laude from Western Kentucky in 2006, but says “nothing there taught me as much as I learned at Columbia State. Columbia State taught me everything I know about becoming a performing artist and a recording artist. They have the best instructors. Cathy Hudnall (Director of Columbia State’s Commercial Entertainment program) steered me in the direction I’m going now. She taught me how to use my voice, and helped with the choices I wanted to make. Not only for my career, but also for my life. I’ve never had a better schooling experience than the one I received at Columbia State. Most people don’t think of Columbia State’s commercial entertainment program when they think of Franklin, or Williamson County, but they should.”
Rachel is a member of Prelude, the extremely successful Christian Pop Group. She also performs on the Revolve Tour as a motivational speaker/singer/author. The Revolve Tour is a conference for teenage girls that empowers them to go out and do something with their lives, by addressing issues like eating disorders, drug abuse, peer pressure and more. It garners a live audience of nearly 8,000 people every weekend. Names like Hawk Nelson, Natalie Grant, Aiesha Woods (Grammy nominated artist) are on the tour with Rachel.