Domine Clemens released her first song on Spotify in 2024. Courtesy | Domine Clemons

When there was no music during church on the first Sunday Domine Clemons ’20 spent at a cancer center in Houston, she said she decided to start singing during communion, and everyone immediately joined in.

Clemons said afterward she asked the priest if she could make a pamphlet of music for the next week.

“So I did, and last week we had five songs,” Clemons said. “I just added that [music] back in because everybody at this hospital is going through the same thing.”

Clemons was diagnosed in January with acute myeloid leukemia as well as a genetic mutation called MECOM Rearrangement, Clemons said. Only 20,000 people a year are diagnosed with just AML, and of those 20,000 people, less than 1% also have MECOM rearrangement.

Clemons is now living at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment, as it is one of the few facilities that deals with this form of leukemia.

“It’s super rare and aggressive,” Clemons said. “It can come on in a matter of weeks, and without treatment, my doctors gave me the life expectancy of six months to a year.”

Clemons said even with treatment it’s an aggressive cancer that doesn’t respond well to chemo.

“My only option is chemo, which I’m going through right now and a stem cell transplant,” Clemons said.

Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic said the GoFundMe fundraiser that Clemons’ sister set up will support her very expensive treatment at the cancer center.

“She has to live there for the foreseeable future — I think she said at least six to 12 months,” Pongracic said.

The GoFundMe has currently raised more than $157,000, but Pongracic said Clemons is still looking for donations because this is an extremely expensive treatment.

“The donations help us to offset some of the medical bills because going into all this, I didn’t have typical health insurance at the time of diagnosis because I’m 26 and self-employed,” Clemons said.

Clemons said she is part of a Christian health sharing ministry, but it may not end up covering her.

“I’m just so grateful for anybody who is moved to help with our cause,” Clemons said. “I really could have never foreseen such a rare and aggressive diagnosis at 26, so just thank you.”

Clemons said she has been able to get spiritual direction at the cancer center which has a small chapel in the hospital.

“I’m a Catholic, so they’ve been able to bring me daily communion,” Clemons said. “It’s definitely been a time of growth, I would say, for my own spiritual life.”

There’s a piano in the chapel, Clemons said, so she frequently goes there just to play the piano and sing.

Pongracic said he was Clemons’ advisor when she was a student at Hillsdale.

“We talked a lot about life and music — we both love music,” Pongracic said. “My happiest memories with Domine are really just chatting in my office but also seeing her perform.”

Pongracic said three occasions stand out to him when he watched Clemons perform.

“There was Battle of the Bands where she sang as part of a band, and she was just phenomenal,” Pongracic said. “There was Centralhallpalooza, and when she graduated in 2020 during the pandemic.”

Pongracic said Hillsdale was one of only two academic institutions to hold a commencement ceremony during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

“We held an outdoor commencement ceremony, which was incredibly moving, incredibly emotional, and one of the most special events that I’ve experienced in my life, never mind at Hillsdale College,” Pongracic said.

Clemons sang as part of the choir for that commencement ceremony, Pongracic said.

“It was right as the sun had set, and the sky was just deep, deep blue, and they sang ‘America the Beautiful,’” Pongracic said.

James Holleman, professor of music, choirs, and orchestra, said Clemons was a student in his choir and chamber choir for all of her years at Hillsdale, and she was a selected winner of the concerto/aria competition.

“I had the pleasure of conducting her two arias in our orchestra concert in October 2020,” Holleman said. “She graduated in May 2020 and came back in the fall to perform, as our spring concert was canceled due to the COVID shutdown.”

Clemons became a professional musician in the past 15 months or so in Naples, Florida, Pongracic said. That was after first working for Erika Donalds, wife of Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who runs an educational service that works with charter schools.

“She had an engagement with a local restaurant where she would sing along to backing tracks three nights a week or something like that,” Pongracic said. “She was also part of a band that played at weddings and different kinds of events like that.”

Pongracic said this was a highly professional band.

“She seemed like she was finally on the path to do the thing she was meant to do, and then she got this news,” Pongracic said.

Pongracic said Clemons released a version of “Ave Maria” on all the major streaming platforms around six to nine months ago.

“She’s got a very deep and profound faith in God,” Pongracic said. “I really believe she can pull through this, and the less she can worry about the financial parts of it, the more strength she will have to be able to focus on battling the illness and overcoming it.”

Clemons said she wants to share that she has peace that God has a bigger plan in place for her.

“There have been so many daily hurdles from insurance to the whole stem cell transplant, which is a beast of its own,” Clemons said. “It feels like there’s constant little battles we keep having to overcome, but I do feel like God has a plan.”

Clemons said she is so grateful to the Hillsdale community.

“Five years later, it’s amazing to know that we really are a family,” Clemons said. “Everything they say when you’re at Hillsdale is true. I just had a girl’s night Zoom call with six of my best friends from Hillsdale a couple days ago. It really doesn’t go away.”

Holleman said those who contribute to the GoFundMe will be supporting a gifted, kind, young person who is in the prime stages of her career as a vocalist.

“I encourage those that can give, do,” Holleman said. “Domine is a gift to our world. She is God’s little birdie.”

Clemons said people looking to donate to her treatment through a check can email her at domine.clemons@outlook.com. Those wanting to donate through the GoFundMe can do so by visiting this website, https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-domines-treatment-of-rare-leukemia.

“Anybody who is considering a donation, I just want to thank them from the bottom of my heart because this is such a shocking time for my family,” Clemons said. “We’ve really been so blessed to have such a supportive community around us.”