Collegiate Advocacy Summit Perspectives by Nick Hoskins
the NAfME Collegiate Advocacy Summit in Washington, DC. For those who don’t know me, I participate in many different ensembles in the University of Wyoming Music Department as a trombone player. I also sing tenor with the UW Singing Statesmen. This past semester was my sophomore year as a Music Education student at the University of Wyoming. I graduated from Green River High School in 2015, where I came from a very robust and supportive music department.
F During my high school years, I took part in many different
leadership roles in the music department, as well as with other organizations at the high school. During my time in high school, I had the opportunity to attend different leadership conferences, so attending this summit was not foreign to me in any way. With that being said, I did not know exactly what to expect so I decided to apply for this summit with an open mind.
I originally decided
to go to the National Advocacy Summit because ever since I started my college career, I have learned about how some school music programs were getting cut out of a student’s education. This made me quite infuriated and has since ignited a flame inside of me to work my hardest to be an advocate for music education in the state of Wyoming. Throughout the conference, I learned many different things pertaining to increasing advocacy skills, boosting membership, and how to build strong leaders in music programs.
By taking note of all the information that I have learned
in these presentations throughout the week, I plan to make a difference starting with the UW Collegiate NAfME chapter. Being surrounded by other collegiate NAfME members from other states was a great opportunity to brainstorm different ideas that I could bring back to my state. In the future, I plan to positively impact my community by volunteering my time to
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rom June 26th - July 2nd, I had the great honor of representing Wyoming’s Collegiate NAfME Chapters at
help any student who has the desire to learn music. During my week around DC, I learned a very indispensable
lesson from Angela Ammerman, former Orchestra Director with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. She showed me that “passionate music educators should love something, they should dislike something, and they should fight for something.” For many public school music educators across the nation, they love teaching their students, and they dislike how unsupported their music programs can be. But the one thing that spoke out to me was what, or who, they were fighting for. For Angela, she was fighting for her students that did not have access to a well- rounded music education. She was fighting for her students who did not know English very well. She was fighting for her students who were living in poverty and did not know where their next meal was coming from.
Ms. Ammerman showed me that as music educators, we do a great deal more than just teach music. I have observed many music educators
throughout
Wyoming, and they are all fighing for something. For each teacher, it is their own unique fight. She also taught us that many successful music educators around the nation have developed their own vision of what they want to do.
Since this trip, I have developed my vision statement. To
provide equal access to music education for students regardless of race, religion, sexuality, political beliefs, musical skill level, English speaking skills, or income level. I am more than willing to put in the work to help make sure that a student has music in their well-rounded education.
My advice to any collegiate music student: try your hardest
to see if you can make it to this Summit. There is a great deal you can learn from this summit and when you’re in a room with many different members, you can brainstorm so many different ideas.
Wyoming Windsong 46
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