Introduction

   The population for my service-learning project was a church youth group comprised of about 100 students in grades 6-12. Prior to beginning the project, I identified potential goals of socialization, community cultivation, and stress-reduction. I was excited to work with this group as this age group is one that I enjoy working with, and the youth group at this church is one that I have history with as well. I have watched the students in this youth group grow up for many years now, so I wanted to provide activities for them to do at home and with one another during this unique time. Once the project began and I spoke with the youth minister, I realized that stress-reduction was not as prevalent as a goal, and I needed to focus more on the community aspect. My hopes for the project included providing fun, engaging, emotionally supportive music activities that would connect the students to one another while giving them a creative outlet to partake in at home.

 Outcomes about myself

         Throughout this project, I had the youth group in mind and thought about how individual students would enjoy these activities. The students each have diverse personalities and home backgrounds, so I wanted to create plans that would engage each of them and relate to what they would normally do at youth group. I wanted to reflect a typical youth group meeting by using songs they would already be familiar with and have emotional connections to, such as “Beautiful Things,” which is a song they have been singing as a group for years. I believe I did well in choosing songs and activities they would relate to and made the activities fun with opportunities for socialization and community cultivation. I learned that I am even more drawn to this population and hope to continue working with this age group, and this specific youth group, in the future.

Outcomes regarding the community partner

         Upon choosing this population and specific youth group, I assumed the group would have higher stress and anxiety levels than normal and would need activities that addressed this. Knowing how COVID-19 has affected so many, especially students’ school environments, I thought that students may need techniques for stress reduction, coping skills, and tools to help them focus in a “work at home” setting. However, upon speaking with the youth minister, he said that anxiety levels have been no higher than normal, and rather the parents had higher anxiety levels than the students. The parents were having a harder time adjusting to the regularity of change, which I found interesting. The youth minister and youth group appreciated the activities I provided and enjoyed being creative together.

 Outcomes regarding my knowledge and skills

         This project was more difficult than I expected. I realized along the way that I was so used to creating session plans for specific patients and clients with concrete physical, cognitive, emotional, or behavior goals that I had not created many activities for others who are not such clients, music therapists, or music therapy students. As I shared my activities, I would receive questions back from the youth minister asking to clarify a few things. I realized then that I did not give enough descriptors for him to be able to facilitate. I was using music therapy terms that not everyone knows and wasn’t making it “user friendly” enough. I needed to include more materials, guidelines, and tools for him to be able to facilitate these activities well and with success. In years past, in my undergrad, I always had practicum students to share the responsibilities with me as well. Everything we did was either theoretical and for a class or was a session we conducted together at a practicum site. Creating activities for someone else to do in a non-music therapy setting was a learning curve, but one I am glad I had. It caused me to think outside of my structured-music-therapy-degree-box and have fun with new ideas. Also, implementing SEL and UDL into my activities has been new to me, as I have never included these in plans prior to this class. Learning to incorporate new methods, and plan for new populations, has been very valuable in my growth!

Outcomes about my values 

         This semester during the pandemic reminded me that down time and time alone are things I require more of. It also heightened my awareness of the needs of others, especially those without close friends and family, access to healthcare, or a place to call home. These ideals are ones I will take with me into my professional career as I strive to create the best health outcomes in each client and patient, and perhaps broaden my practice to those who may not have access to privileges such as music therapy. When working with the youth at the church, it became very clear that not every student had access to computers or other forms of technology. The world is so dependent on these things right now, and I can imagine that going through school, work, and life must be very difficult without the ability to connect with others. This semester in this class learning about those with disabilities increased my knowledge of this subject and these individuals in a way that was necessary and long awaited. I learned so much about my own assumptions, language, and mentality, and I am glad to have changed in certain areas and grown in others so I can move forward having more empathy towards clients, and everyone I meet.

 Outcomes about action

         As I continue my music therapy education and move into my internship at UK, I am motivated to learn more about those with disabilities, and specifically youth with disabilities. Working with youth this semester has been great, and I do hope to continue working with this group. I want to commit to checking in on them throughout this next semester and showing up and volunteering when in-person activities resume. I care about these students, and I want to continue to watch them grow and hope I can be a positive role model and trustworthy confidant for them. I think it is so important for students to have positive outlets and adults that take interest in them so they can see what it means to care about important issues, the world, and people. Even if the youth are just seeing this over zoom this semester, they know the importance of caring about bigger issues and getting involved thanks to the incredible volunteers and staff that work with them regularly.

 Outcomes and conclusion

         After this course, my terminology has expanded and become more inclusive, and I have become more aware about simply asking individuals what they prefer rather than guessing. I now understand the benefits and methods of SEL and UDL, having never learned about them before, which I will take into my practice. I had an assignment for another class, and I used my SEL and UDL knowledge in an essay to explain how to best plan and implement an intervention in a classroom setting! I really enjoyed this class and the new information it brought with it. I felt like I could finally use the information I had learned in my undergrad and build upon it in a way that directly pertained to my career goals. Throughout the course and service-learning experience, and my first semester as a master’s student, I grew as a student and future music therapist and I am excited for what I will continue to learn in courses to come!