Nickole Kennedy

Nickole Kennedy graduated from Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in 2016. She now attends the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester: a private university which has focuses on theatre, music, dance, and arts management. Kennedy’s major is Music Education with a choral emphasis. She is currently working on her student teaching application because in the spring she’ll be student teaching! Student teaching is a college supervised experience wherein the college student is like a teacher-in-progress, working on putting together with lesson plans and teaching in the cooperating class. “My plans for the future are to hopefully find a job in teaching music education in an elementary school or high school. I absolutely love focusing on my art. It feels truly amazing to be able to study what I love everyday and then be able to teach the new generation about what music means to them.”

She is the President of Collegiate Virginia Music Educators Association (CoVMEA) and that means she leads the collegiate side of the bigger Virginia Music Educators Association. Last year, she was the President of her school’s National Association for Music Education chapter. “Being the leader has taught me different ways of approaching situations and also how to run an organization. It’s super humbling.”

When discussing what kind of responsibilities she has, Kennedy said “For CoVMEA, I preside over an executive board where we are in charge of picking our sessions for the annual Virginia Music Educators Association conference. We help plan everything for the collegiates during the conference. The main goal of our organization is to connect collegiates all across the state.” Along with planning sessions for the annual Virginia Music Educators Association conference, they also help with advocacy around the state to express the importance of music education.

While at ARGS, she tried to be involved within the music program and to keep up with all that was going on. “That level of interest and curiosity helped me when I got to college,” she mentioned. Looking back at her time here, Kennedy said, “I am so grateful for the friends that I made, both student-wise and teacher-wise. This school helped me have open eyes when I went out into the world and to always have an open mind."