The dedication and work of two University of Indianapolis students has led to them winning an award from the Indiana Music Education Association. Junior music education major Maddison Kinter and senior music education major Samantha Burkey, received the Outstanding Future Music Educator Award during the IMEA’s Professional Development Conference in Fort Wayne, Ind. The conference ran from Jan. 11 -13 and featured music educators from across the state of Indiana, according to the IMEA’s website. IMEA is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), according to the their website.
Burkey said the award was specifically for music education majors who were pursuing a Bachelor’s degree and that as part of the process that she had to write an essay to the organization.
“I wrote an essay highlighting why I would be a good candidate for it [the award],” Burkey said. “Several of them [essays] were submitted…and they chose mine.”
Kinter also said that she had to write an essay and that the qualifications for the award were to have a good grade point average, be involved with a chapter of NAfME on a college campus that is a member of the organization, and to have contributed in some way to the music education field.
Burkey said that she was surprised to receive the award because there were at least thirty or so applicants from universities across Indiana that partipate in IMEA.
She said that she first received news that she had won the award when she had started at her first week of student teaching at Southport Middle School.
“Student teaching is very difficult, so it was a little bit of reassurance that ‘Yes, you’re on the right path. Yes, you’re doing the right things’” Burkey said. “It just felt really good to be recognized because music education is…a really demanding major.”
Burkey also said that she will only be student teaching at Southport Middle School until March. After March, she said that she will be teaching at an elementary school in Decatur Township.
Kinter said that winning the award was awkward because she does not like being under the limelight. She said, however, that it was nice to know that she was making positive contributions to the field and that she was doing something right.
There are seven chapters of name on college campuses across the state of Indiana, according to Kinter. Their role on campus is mostly community service-based and for networking for their members.
“We have chapter meetings where we bring in speakers to talk about hot topics in the music education world…[and] we are always encouraging our students to go out and work in the field as much as possible,” Kinter said.
Burkey attributes her winning her award to her experiences here at the university. She said that her professors and her education at UIndy had made her very qualified to win the award.
“I think that my professors did a really good job preparing me throughout the music education curriculum, because we [UIndy], unlike other
places…[and] other schools, we get out into the classroom our freshman year, and we’re in there doing stuff all throughout our four years [here], up until we student teach,” Burkey said. “I don’t know if [students at] a lot of other schools get that experience, so I felt that it was something that really helped me get that award.”
Both Kinter and Burkey have plans for careers in music education after leaving UIndy. Kinter said that her goal is to become a high school band director and Burkey said that her goal for the moment is to graduate in May.
“Ideally, [my] future plans [are to] find a job teaching middle school choirs, or at least music,” Kinter said.
