Head drum major Elizabeth Christensen, center, walks with fellow members of La Costa Canyon High School’s Maverick Brigade. The marching band welcomes students from across the San Dieguito Union High School District.
(Sophi Stumpf)
Elizabeth Christensen, center, with La Costa Canyon High School’s 2026–2027 color guard team. Before becoming head drum major, Christensen served two years as color guard captain, helping grow the team from one member to nine.
(Kris Gentry)
Elizabeth Christensen performs with the color guard during her sophomore year at La Costa Canyon High School.
(Kris Gentry)
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Head drum major Elizabeth Christensen, center, walks with fellow members of La Costa Canyon High School’s Maverick Brigade. The marching band welcomes students from across the San Dieguito Union High School District.
(Sophi Stumpf)
Students from San Dieguito Academy, Diegueño Middle School and Oak Crest Middle School are finding a shared musical home in La Costa Canyon High School’s Maverick Brigade, the only marching band in the San Dieguito Union High School District, a news release stated.
Leading the approximately 95-member ensemble is La Costa Canyon (LCC) senior Elizabeth Christensen, the school’s first female head drum major and a second-term Encinitas Youth Commissioner. Her leadership brings together two commitments that shape her work throughout North County: helping students find a place to belong and creating opportunities for them to serve their community, the news release stated.
Performing in Carlsbad, San Marcos, Encinitas and throughout Southern California, the Maverick Brigade operates as a traveling community marching band, bringing students from different campuses together to rehearse, compete and perform.
Its growth reflects years of rebuilding.
When director Charles Mekealian arrived in fall 2020, COVID-19 had disrupted school music programs, leaving the band with just 14 students. Since then, the Maverick Brigade has grown into a 95-student ensemble competing in the 4A division.
Mekealian, a Marine veteran who spent eight years serving in a Marine marching band, brought the discipline, dedication and sense of responsibility he developed during military service to his work with students. His motto, “No student left behind,” carries that commitment into the school community, the news release stated.
The program welcomes students of different abilities, including those with disabilities, those whose families face financial barriers and those who have never taken a music lesson. Mekealian’s approach centers on the belief that every student has a place in the band.
Christensen’s connection to the program began with supporting her older brother and helping with bake sales at performances. As a middle school student, she learned to play the tuba and sousaphone alongside him. By her sophomore year, she was the program’s only color guard member. During two years as captain, she helped grow the team from one member to nine.
Now, as head drum major and band class president, she brings that same persistence to leading the larger ensemble.
Her service work has also helped connect LCC with schools and organizations throughout North County.
Christensen and her brother, Michael, co-founded LCC’s JustServe Club and helped expand service opportunities to feeder middle schools. She has coordinated projects involving 10 local elementary and middle schools, supporting organizations including the San Diego Food Bank, Community Resource Center, Rady Children’s Hospital, Carlsbad Police Department and Encinitas Sheriff’s Department, according to the news release.
On campus, she has brought clubs and sports teams together for shared projects. Beach cleanups connected LCC students with environmental organizations and local lifeguards. For Chalk the Walk, she worked with teacher Ms. Hernandez to involve English language learners in an activity that filled campus walkways with encouraging messages.
Together with her brother, Christensen also developed “Striving Together,” a plan to expand student-led community service across all 10 district campuses.As president and co-founder of the youth-led nonprofit Striving to Serve Others, she mentors younger volunteers and organizes intergenerational art socials connecting K-12 students, seniors and veterans. The organization’s partnerships now include the cities of Encinitas, Carlsbad and San Marcos, the news release stated.
Her military appreciation projects engage K–12 students in creating cards for veterans and deployed service members. She has coordinated card displays and deliveries for the Encinitas VFW, deployments with the Marines at Miramar, Veterans Village of San Diego and Wounded Warrior Homes.
Through these projects, she encourages LCC students to recognize the service of military members and veterans, including Mekealian. She also delivers student-written cards to isolated seniors through her nonprofit, Striving to Serve Others and is serving her second term as a commissioner on the Encinitas Youth Commission.
“I love bringing students together to serve because everyone has something to give,” Christensen said in the news release. “Sometimes a card, a conversation or simply showing up can help someone feel seen and remembered.”
Christensen’s volunteer work has earned the Congressional Award Gold Medal, a 2024 Presidential Volunteer Service Award Gold Medal and recognition alongside her brother as inaugural recipients of state Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s Champion of the Month honor for the 38th District. She has earned the Presidential Lifetime Volunteer Service Award, for completing more than 6,630 service hours by age 17.
For Christensen, leading the band and organizing service projects offer ways to help students participate, feel included, and find their purpose. Younger students can learn from older peers, beginners can develop new skills and volunteers can see the difference their efforts make.
Under Mekealian’s direction and Christensen’s student leadership, a band that had just 14 members during the pandemic now brings 95 students together, carrying its music and spirit of service throughout the community and Southern California, the news release stated.