School of Music awards $20,000 in scholarships to CFAW Worship Lifestyle contest winners

Last weekend, over 170 College for a Weekend (CFAW) students participated in Worship Lifestyle, a competition hosted by Liberty University School of Music in which visiting high school students audition for a chance to win scholarships.

This year, future Liberty students Ethan Brown from Youngsville, N.C., and Olivia Drinen from St. Louis, Mo., each won a $10,000 Worship Lifestyle Scholarship for the Fall 2025 semester.

The competition is held during the first CFAW of each academic year and allows students to compete in one of two categories, or tracks. For Track One, students can submit an essay on how their actions reflect a life of worship and perform it as a speech during the auditions. Scores are based on their oral presentation and Gospel-centered content. The track is for any student regardless of their intended area of study. Track Two involves writing a 250-word testimony and performing a Christian song or hymn (scores are judged based on their musicianship and performance).

“Our faculty judges are looking beyond the surface of the performance,” said School of Music Dean Dr. Stephen Müller. “They’re considering how the music embodies the spirit of worship and aligns with the student’s personal and musical development.”

After going through a series of three auditions between Friday and Saturday, the winners were announced and honored with the chance to perform during the School of Music’s Revive Concert on Saturday afternoon. The concert featured School of Music groups LU Praise, Vessel, and the acapella group Shine.

Brown, the Track Two winner, played a rendition of “Be Thou My Vision” on the marimba. Next fall, he plans to pursue a B.M. in Percussion Performance.

“I started pursuing (percussion), and then figured that that’s what I should do in life,” he said. “God gave me this talent, so I might as well use it.”

This was not Brown’s first time on campus, as he visited for Experience LU earlier this year and called it “simply breathtaking.”

“When I was done with the visit, I just couldn’t describe it. I just felt that this was the way to become closer to God. No other school I looked at did anything like Liberty did with God.”

After his first audition, Brown had the chance to meet with Associate Professor of Music Jay Ware and practice his marimba performance. Brown credits the feedback Ware gave him as the reason for his win. During his CFAW stay, Brown also enjoyed trying out the various disc golf courses offered by Campus Recreation, and he is interested in joining the disc golf team when he becomes a student.

Drinen, the Track One winner, will be pursuing a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences at Liberty. Her essay shared part of her testimony and what living a life of worship means to her.

“Through science and medicine, I worship my Creator. I give Him every success, every failure, every study session, and every exam because He is worthy of every moment that I spend on this Earth,” Drinen said during her essay presentation. “The Lord has blessed me with opportunity after opportunity, given me chance after chance; He sent His only son to die, because He wanted to see me in His kingdom. So I give Him the only thing I have: my life.”

Besides participating in the competition, Drinen’s favorite activity on campus last weekend was the Late Night Worship on Friday night at the Center for Music and the Worship Arts, Concert Hall, and she is excited to come back next year as a student.

“I don’t think it’s fully set in yet, honestly. In less than a year, my life is going to look so different,” she said. “Liberty is the only school I’ve ever really looked at or thought about going to. The community is something that’s most important to me. I’ve gone to public school my whole life, and while it’s really shaped who I am, I’m ready to step into a season of life where I’m not always trying to be the light, and I can be poured into by other people and just have a season of growth.”

Drinen plans to attend Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine after receiving her bachelor’s degree.

Tripp said worship is an important factor in what they teach at the School of Music, aligning with Liberty’s mission of Training Champions for Christ, and the Worship Lifestyle competition showcases that to prospective students.

“Worship is the expression of what Christians do on a daily basis,” School of Music Director of Operations Jonathan Tripp said. “It’s part of what we are called to do inwardly, and it’s what we are called to do outwardly. We at the Center for Music and the Worship Arts are training our students to be musicians for Christ, and we’re specifically doing that in a way that would train them to demonstrate what it means to worship in our daily lives.”