Reflective Blog

MUS 664: Service-Learning Reflective Blog

adapted from:

Elon University Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement Workbook

Chelsea Gibbs

1.     Introduction.

My service-learning project is for the use of music therapy practicum students at the non-profit, Build Inclusion, who work with young adults with disabilities with the goal to obtain competitive, integrated, and meaningful employment.  After interviewing a previous music therapy practicum student at Build Inclusion, they stated they wished they had a better understanding of cognitive and intellectual disabilities so they could have better prepared interventions to be not only age-appropriate, but also cognitively appropriate. The music therapy student specifically requested materials regarding lyric analysis and how to address social/emotional goals for individuals with intellectual disabilities, as they felt their lyric analysis interventions were sometimes too abstract. The three interventions I created offer space for jobseekers to engage and interact in a variety of means. 

When initially reading about the service-learning project I was confused.  I started

creating ideas that would have been too large to complete in a semester and were better left for an internship project or thesis topic.  Once gaining clarification of the assignment I was excited for the opportunity to create something meaningful and useful for practicum students who would be working with jobseekers at my place of employment.   

2.     Outcomes about myself.  

I feel that I was effective in my work with my community partner.  The interview with a previous practicum student who did their work at Build Inclusion gave me the guidance I needed to create meaningful and useful interventions.  As an employee at Build Inclusion, I have not been able to observe or be a part of the music therapy sessions so hearing about the sessions from a student was beneficial.  I was able to implement their suggestions and create resourceful interventions.  I also applied the suggested edits from the practicum student after they read the interventions.  

I surprised myself with figuring out how to navigate editing my webpage.  I would not call myself a particularly technologically savvy person.  I tend to get frustrated and give up when I am struggling with issues on the computer.  I am proud of myself for looking up resources and asking for help when needed to successfully complete this web-based project.

3.     Outcomes regarding the community partner.

I assumed that the community partner would have requested interventions and activities focused on communication goals, as that is largely a skill most of Build Inclusion’s jobseekers are actively working on. However, the community partner stated a need for age-appropriate and cognitively appropriate interventions focusing more on social/emotional goals.

I regret misreading the blog assignments where we were to apply feedback to our projects and reflect and write a blog about them.  I applied the feedback but did not understand that there was supposed to be a blog as well.  This may have been a disservice to the community partner.  

4.     Outcomes regarding my knowledge and skills.

Coming into this project I feel that I had a good baseline starting point in terms of knowledge about jobseeker skills and teenagers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD).  However, there is always space to learn, grow, and improve.  More specifically, this service-learning project helped me to think on a deeper level of how to communicate and express more abstract thoughts/feelings to individuals with varying impacts of ID/DD. Utilizing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and implementing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) strategies helped me to logically process how I was going to address these social/emotional goals. 

I hope to continue to gain knowledge in this area and to find effective ways to communicate with and allow others with ID/DD to communicate effectively.  My biggest concern is making sure that what I created was age-appropriate but also cognitively appropriate for this specific group of individuals.

5.     Outcomes about my values.

The goals and objectives of this course lined up well with my personal values on social justice.  I would consider myself a person who tries to be aware of social inequities and be a “social justice warrior.”  Something I was most pleased about with the course was the promotion of thinking of disability using the social model of disability and listening to the voices of disabled self-advocates.  This is unfortunately not the case in many situations but is something I hope becomes the norm within my lifetime.  

Something I had to think about while creating activities for future Build Inclusion Music Therapy practicum students is that not all those students will have experience working with individuals with ID/DD and may have values on disability that do not align with mine.  This could be due to a lack of knowledge on certain topics or be a personal decision.  I wanted the activities, however, to promote inclusion, respect, focus on the desired goals, and be age appropriate.  

6.     Outcomes about action.

The next logical step would be to share this resource with whoever is leading the music therapy sessions at Build Inclusion next semester and make certain that it is shared with the practicum students as well.  One thing that I commit to doing is becoming board-certified.  I would like to contract with Build Inclusion and offer a more permanent music therapy option for jobseekers and have the funding come from The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

It is incredibly important that people be engaged in their communities to work towards inclusion and social equity.  All members of a community deserve to feel accepted by those around them, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and have the same chance to live their best life regardless of disability, social status, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, etc.  

7.     Outcomes and conclusion.

Progress was made towards all course learning outcomes and goals.  I made the most growth with learning outcome four which reads, “apply concepts regarding disability, accessibility, inclusivity, age-appropriateness, Universal Design for Learning, Social Emotional Learning, and other course concepts to music-based activities, as is appropriate to your professional training and scope of practice.”  These concepts came to life through the service-learning project.  I most enjoyed learning about SEL and how to apply that knowledge to real life experiences.  I could not help but think of people I know and make the realization that sometimes the way they act or respond is in direct correlation to not having access to SEL growing up.  I plan to take this new knowledge and apply it to everyday life both in a professional sense and in my personal life.

Overall, I am pleased with the content and the projects in this class.  I think it is an important skill to be able to assess what is happening in the world through different lenses and to be able to critically think about social injustices, why they are happening, and what can be done about it.