Films, Faust, Jazz, and JavaScript : The Many Talents of Mason Chow (USchool ’17; TU ’25)

Mason Chow is a young Renaissance man for the digital age—a classical violinist turned jazz bassist, an award-winning documentarian, a cybersecurity researcher, and a University School alum who still credits his formative years there as the bedrock of his diverse success.

Sitting down for an interview shortly after graduating from the University of Tulsa, Chow reflects with humility and clarity on his journey from the classrooms of University School to graduate school, where he now conducts student research while pursuing his master’s degree in Cyber Security at his alma mater. “University School was a really positive environment,” Chow says. “I had a lot of really good teachers, and especially in the later grades, the rhythm of the work helped me develop good study habits—skills I kept coming back to later.”

Those habits were put to the test when he transitioned to Jenks High School, where he found the academic expectations surprisingly lax in comparison. “They wouldn’t let me take any APs right away because it did not work in their system,” he explains. The adjustment was frustrating at first. “It—lesser expectations—demotivated me a little,” he admits. “But I redirected my energy.” That redirection, helped by a love of learning ingrained in his earlier education, led him to reading voraciously for fun, taking a screenwriting course, and ultimately discovering a passion for film and music.

Film class became a creative haven. Chow worked under a teacher who happened to be a former filmmaker and brought professional-level passion to high school media. Chow flourished under that mentorship, producing award-winning documentaries—including one on the opioid crisis and another on Native American justice post-McGirt—that earned recognition from C-SPAN. “Learning how to tell stories and master technical tools—that was huge for me,” he says. To go along with his awards for creative journalistic pursuits, he earned academic recognition as a National Merit Semifinalist.

He also devoted time to orchestra, a natural extension of his childhood involvement in the Tulsa Youth Symphony. Although he began playing violin at age five more out of obligation than joy, he found his love for music in college. “Someone asked me to join a jazz ensemble on day three of college,” he laughs. “Suddenly, everything I had learned clicked.”

Chow’s time at the University of Tulsa proved to be a period of intense growth. Though he formally studied computer science and cybersecurity, he unofficially pursued a music major as well, balancing his time between code and chord changes. He joined TU’s honors program, which culminated in a capstone project that fused his interests: a collaborative jazz performance based on the Faust legend. Chow composed original music, led rehearsals, and even challenged himself by switching from violin to upright bass for the performance. “It was the first time I’d written music to such a professional standard,” he says. “I knew exactly what I wanted and could communicate it to musicians I hadn’t worked with before.”

In parallel, Chow was a University of Tulsa Presidential Scholar. He also contributed to research in autonomous agents as part of the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge—an experience that helped him understand the mechanics behind artificial intelligence just as the public wave of interest in large language models hit.

Now, Chow is diving headfirst into the next chapter. As a graduate student at The University of Tulsa, he’s exploring cyber security with an eye toward consulting and auditing but remains open to new possibilities. “I’ve recently been surprised by how much I enjoy software development,” he says. True to form, he’s still playing jazz, still seeking challenges, and still pushing himself into unfamiliar territory.

Reflecting on University School, Chow doesn’t hesitate to praise the community that helped shape him. “It’s a special place,” he says. “The teachers and administrators really care—not just about grades, but about who you’re becoming. That support, those relationships, they stay with you.”

From classical strings to digital security, from deep reading to technical mastery, Mason Chow’s story is one of continual reinvention. And if his time at University School laid the foundation, his future—creative, curious, and committed—looks as bright as ever.