Music, Milestones, and Memories: McKenzie Hofer’s Journey at SDSU

It’s November of 2022, and the first thing that McKenzie Hofer registers as her ship bobs into New York Harbor is goosebumps racing up her arms.

The second is the sight before her eyes: the Statue of Liberty standing tall, presiding over the first American soil that McKenzie’s grandmother, Alie, ever saw. Tears flood her eyes, but McKenzie doesn’t let them fall. With close friends by her side, she makes her way into the Ellis Island visitor’s center, takes up a post at a computer, and scrolls through the records available to guests.

Finally, she spots it: her grandmother’s name scrawled in decades-old pen, preserved in a digital image alongside a photo of the ship her family’s Dutch matriarch boarded to America 74 years ago.

The staff are just as eager as McKenzie is, guiding her down the staircase where her grandmother would have walked, positioning her just right to follow in Alie’s footsteps. McKenzie pulls out her phone and dials her grandmother, back in their small town in South Dakota. “I’m standing where you stood, Grandma,” she says, her voice thick with emotion. “I’m living your story right now.”

McKenzie is a member of the Pride of the Dakotas, and her time in New York City wasn’t just marked by the performance of a lifetime in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but by the opportunity to visit Ellis Island and track down her grandmother’s immigration records from 1948.

As a sophomore at SDSU, McKenzie’s Jackrabbit experience is already composed of countless once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, particularly involving music: performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, providing the soundtrack to the football team’s national championship victory in Frisco, Texas, and this December, she’ll wrap up her holiday season by joining the Concert Choir with a trip to Norway and Sweden for the chance to sing in picturesque cathedrals.

Growing up, McKenzie’s greatest passion was music. She took piano lessons starting in second grade and admits to constantly making up songs to help her study and learn. The Hofer family had to instate a rule of no singing at the dinner table to get through meals, and, to this day, if you glance down at McKenzie’s hands, her fingers are often tapping out a tune across her lap, working through a melody on an imaginary piano.

Though she attended a small Christian high school, McKenzie took a fateful trip to the SDSU campus during her junior year, having been selected to participate in the ACDA South Dakota Senior Honor Choir. It was then that McKenzie met Dr. Laura Diddle, whose support and influence was game-changing in her college selection process. After getting her first taste of collegiate life as a Jackrabbit, the rest was history.

Hailing from a remote farm where the nearest town has a population of only 91, McKenzie’s small-town upbringing led her to big opportunities at SDSU.

Despite having never worn a band uniform before college, she dove headfirst into the Pride of the Dakotas during her freshman year at State, meeting lifelong friends and participating in performances that would go down in the history books of the university. McKenzie credits Dr. Kevin Kessler’s inspiring leadership and infectious energy as a main factor for her love of the Pride.

“My favorite days at SDSU are always going to be game days,” McKenzie says, lighting up just at the thought of them. “You wake up, you go to rehearsal, and Dr. Kessler asks, ‘What day is it?!’ and we answer back, ‘IT’S GAME DAY!’ The atmosphere is electric. I can’t even describe the feeling of walking into the packed stadium; you feel so small, but at the same time so big.”

Though she is forever passionate about music, she is equally fascinated by history. Double majoring in history and communications, McKenzie credits a deep respect for the power of stories when it comes to her unique pairing of fields of study. While she seeks to find a career someday that allows her to help others tell their story, in the meantime, she’s busy writing her own impressive work-in-progress.

In addition to the Pride of the Dakotas, McKenzie’s packed schedule includes singing in the Concert Choir, serving as Vice President of the Hyde/Ben Reifel Hall student government, playing piano for the Oasis College and Young Adult Ministry, dancing away stress through the swing dance club, and steadfastly reserving her Wednesday nights for screenings of Survivor with a group of her fellow Jackrabbits.

Fittingly enough, when prompted to sum up her SDSU experience thus far in just one word, she immediately answers, “Opportunity.”

McKenzie recognizes that the many and diverse opportunities she’s found at the university wouldn’t be possible for her without the financial support of scholarships – not to mention the generous donors whose philanthropy generates musical milestones for both the Pride of the Dakotas and the Concert Choir.

Looking back on the whirlwind of her first two years as a Jackrabbit, McKenzie explains that she, and other students like her, stands on the shoulders of giants when it comes to generosity.

“I am so thankful for all the things that I’m able to do because of our donors, and I want them to know that what they are giving to me is worth it, a thousand times over,” she reflects. "I wish I could meet all of them so I could personally shake their hands and look them in the eye and say, ‘My life has changed because of you.’”

Fueled by that life-changing generosity, McKenzie has no intention of slowing down when it comes to making the most of her college years.

Looking ahead, she aims to connect with the Office of International Affairs to pursue opportunities to study abroad. (She’s not too picky when it comes to the location, eager to immerse herself in cultures around the world and find new stories to tell through her passion for communication and music.)

In the spring of 2024, she’ll head to the State Capitol to intern at the legislative session, another opportunity she insists wouldn’t be possible without the support of the dedicated faculty of SDSU.

Next up, McKenzie will join the Concert Choir for a two-week tour of Norway and Sweden, performing in stunning cathedrals and taking in the local culture right on the heels of Christmas, ringing in the new year in a foreign country. She’s looking forward to visiting the fjords and keeping her fingers crossed for a glimpse of the Northern Lights.

In 2022, as McKenzie strolled through the Ellis Island visitor’s center and shared her grandmother’s story, the staff kept returning to the same question: did her Grandma Alie do it? Did she find everything she’d been looking for when she journeyed to the United States?

McKenzie beamed as she assured the staff that yes, Alie’s journey had been more than worth the trip – something she has in common with her granddaughter’s path to SDSU more than 70 years later. Both women had embarked to an unknown future, intent on a great perhaps and emboldened by a vision of what might come next.

“My life motto is, ‘Enjoy the journey,’” McKenzie explains. “People go through life always looking to the next thing, like they’ll have a certain job someday or they’ll travel someday. But, really, if you can, you should do those things now…There are so many ways for me to shine here. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned at SDSU, it’s that this university is pretty good at making dreams come true.”