Proposal

The population that will most likely benefit from this service-learning project is either the  parents or teachers of the students at Friends School in Louisville, KY. Whether it will be for the parents or the teachers will be determined after meeting with the pathways coordinator at the school to determine the specific needs of the community.

I chose this community because I work with the students at the school with my music therapy internship, and I want to help the rest of the community because this school has had a very hectic two years with the pandemic and going back and forth between virtual learning. I can only imagine how stressful that has been for teachers and parents. This will benefit me professionally because as a future music therapist with a music education background, I may find myself working in the school system either as a therapist or a teacher. Learning how I can best help this community will help me with my future communities.  

In regards to certain skills that will be beneficial to this project, I am level one Google Certified. This will prove helpful when making virtual resources. Furthermore, my experience as a music teacher has given me an understanding of how stressful teaching can be. While I did not teach for a long time, there were several obstacles that occurred during my time as a music teacher in a public school and at a church.

I have already been talking with my music therapy supervisor, Julia Carpenter, MT-BC, about possible needs in the community, and she has connected me to Jessica Rockhold, the pathways coordinator at Friends School, and Jessica and I met. We discussed the needs of one family whose student is in my kindergarten music class. Jess has connected me to the student's parents, and I will work with them to create personalized music resources to help with communication needs between student and parents.