Music students elected to collegiate executive board of TMEC

By Marc Speir
University News Service
April 5, 2007

Three students from the School of Music at Texas State University-San Marcos were recently elected to the collegiate offices of the Texas Music Educators Conference (TMEC), a state affiliate of the National Association for Music Education (MENC), the governing body for music education.

The elections were held on Friday, Feb. 16 at a joint music conference with more than 22,000 music educators in attendance. The conference was held in San Antonio and hosted by the TMEC and the Texas Music Educators Association.

Amey Szanto-Nicodemus from Waco was elected vice president, Nick Conte of Kyle was elected communications officer and Alejandra Herrera from San Antonio was voted in as secretary treasurer. All three students are music education majors. The trio filled three out five student executive positions for the collegiate board of the TMEC.

“This says our students are really taking the initiative to go and lead,” said Robin Stein, president-elect of the TMEC and coordinator of the music education program. “It recognizes that although we’ve always had a strong program (at Texas State), we’re now taking more of a leadership role in organizations.”

The collegiate arm of the TMEC boasts more than 290 members from colleges and universities across Texas. The primary goal of the organization at the collegiate level is to support one another in the transition toward becoming teachers.

“It’s about surviving the first year of teaching,” said Stein. “This can help future teachers in interviewing, writing resumes, finding jobs and getting motivated.”

Officers are charged with creating service projects, communicating with other schools for activities, maintaining the collegiate website of the TMEC, inviting speakers, providing networking opportunities and planning for professional development sessions.

“I hope to start making connections with teachers already active in the field and meet other music education majors working on degrees at other universities,” said Conte.

The board is also assisting all collegiate chapters in Texas with a community service project. This current goal is, “Clean up a Music Classroom,” in which local chapters contact schools in their community that may need remodeling or additional materials for a music classroom.

“I enjoy working with other collegiates to increase awareness of music education and the effects of music in our lives,” said Szanto-Nicodemus. “I want to help lead others to find the excitement and proactive ways of promoting music education.”

The next TMEC meeting will be for a music education symposium in Dallas June 11-13, including a job fair on the last day.  The conference is open to all music education majors and the theme will be, “Music for All in Urban and Rural Schools.”

The National Association for Music Education is the world's largest arts education organization representing more than 120,000 members and recognized as the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. All levels of teaching are addressed, from preschool to graduate school. Since 1907, MENC has worked to ensure that every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers.

For more information, visit the national website at www.menc.org or the Texas chapter website at www.tmec.org.