Autumn Toth never doubted where she belonged — somewhere with an instrument in her hands and music in her veins. Now, the Carroll High grad is packing up her bass guitar for one of the best music schools in the country, all paid for.

She’s quick to say she didn’t do it alone.

Music in Her Blood

Step into the Toth household and you’d probably trip over a guitar case or a mic stand. Autumn jokes that she was practically born with an amp humming in the background.

Her parents? They met in a band. How’s that for a story you’d want to turn into a song someday?

“Music was just… there. All the time,” Autumn says. “I’d be messing around on GarageBand when I was like six. My dad would burn the tracks to CDs so I could give them to my friends. I thought I was pretty cool.”

Sweetwater’s Rock Camp Made It Real

But fiddling on a laptop is one thing. Getting up on a stage? That’s a whole different beast. That’s where Sweetwater’s Rock Camp came in.

A local staple in Fort Wayne, Rock Camp is where shy kids become performers — or at least figure out how to fake confidence until they believe it themselves.

Camille Zoske, who’s run Rock Camp for eight years, remembers the first time Autumn showed up.

“She was so shy, hiding behind the keyboard. You wouldn’t think she’d end up being the backbone of a band,” Zoske says.

Finding Her Groove on Bass

It didn’t happen overnight. But there’s something about Rock Camp — the way kids are thrown together into bands, tasked with writing, recording, and playing a real gig. Sink or swim.

Autumn didn’t sink. She started on keys, dabbled in guitar, tried a bit of drums, then fell in love with the bass.

“The bass is everything,” she says with a grin. “It just holds it all down. You don’t hear it, but you feel it.”

She laughs about her first real gig. “I was terrified. But once you’ve done it once, you wanna do it again.”

A Full-Ride Worth Every Practice Session

Lots of kids dream of a music career. Few get a ticket this golden. Autumn was accepted into one of the country’s top music schools — full scholarship, no strings attached.

She won’t name the school just yet. But everyone in her circle knows it’s a big deal.

“It’s surreal,” she says. “My parents were crying more than I was.”

The scholarship didn’t just fall into her lap. It took long nights in her room, strings under her fingers until they ached. Summer after summer at Rock Camp, building confidence and skills she’d never get just noodling alone at home.

Rock Camp’s Secret Sauce

So what’s so special about this camp anyway? Zoske thinks it’s the way it throws kids into the deep end — with a lifeguard, of course.

“Some have never performed. They come here, they learn how to write, record, perform in a band. They realize they can do it,” Zoske says.

A few key points parents love about Rock Camp:

• Kids get real hands-on experience in a professional studio

• They learn the nuts and bolts of songwriting, not just covers

• It’s a safe space to mess up, try again, and grow

For Autumn, that safe space was everything.

Why It Matters for Fort Wayne’s Creative Scene

A lot of folks think Fort Wayne’s just factories and basketball. But Sweetwater’s campus is its own kind of mecca for music kids. Rock Camp’s just one part.

Programs like this help keep local talent from slipping through the cracks. Not every shy 14-year-old knows they could be a killer bassist someday.

Sometimes all it takes is a few weeks each summer, a mentor who cares, and a stage to stand on.

What Autumn Hopes Comes Next

Autumn’s not exactly sure where she’ll land when the four years are up. Touring bassist? Session musician? Maybe producing records? She shrugs — she’s got time.

What she does know is she wants other kids like her to see what’s possible. Especially girls who think the bass is “for the guys.”

“Play what you want,” she says. “Nobody owns an instrument. Just pick it up.”

One sentence, but you can feel how much she means it.

A Local Success Story That Hits Home

For Carroll High, Autumn’s success is a brag-worthy moment. She’s proof you don’t need a huge city to launch a dream — just a family that supports you, a community that shows up, and a camp that turns practice into passion.

Her old bandmates from Rock Camp are probably cheering the loudest. Zoske says she hopes Autumn will come back to visit, maybe teach a class or two.

Autumn just smiles. “I owe a lot to this place. It’s home.”