Colleen Semones ’25
Recently, Colleen Semones ’25, a student in Elizabethtown College’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS) Master of Music Education (MME) program, was awarded funding through the National Education Association (NEA) Foundation Student Success Grant to purchase music equipment for her elementary classroom.
Semones’ inspiration to write the grant derived from the final project in her MME World Music Drumming® course where her professor, Michael Checco encouraged the class to create something that would be useful and meaningful in their current teaching situations. She decided to pursue funds to purchase World Music Drumming® equipment for her classroom at Anderson Elementary School in the Bristol Tennessee City Schools District where she works as a Music Specialist.
“I wanted to incorporate all the wonderful things I’d learned from my World Music Drumming® class into my classroom but did not have the necessary instruments,” Semones said. “When I decided to write a grant for purchasing instruments, the NEA Foundation’s Student Success Grant stood out to me as a great possibility because of the types of projects it sought to support.”
World Music Drumming® is a key part of Etown’s unique MME curriculum and explores the foundations of drumming, dancing, singing, and moving within the traditions of African cultures while allowing participants to discover a broader and more inclusive understanding of what music is.
“The World Music Drumming® program brings us to understand that the relationships involved are much more complex than simply performer and audience,” Checco said. “Colleen is infectiously enthusiastic, deeply caring, and a highly skilled music educator. When kids experience the World Music Drumming program with an educator like Colleen, lives are impacted.”
The NEA Foundation Student Success Grant supports educators in engaging students in project-based and deeper learning to support the development of skills and dispositions contributing to success and fulfillment in a changing world.
By receiving $5,000 from the grant, Semones is thrilled to now be able to purchase an entire World Music Drumming class set for her school.
Elizabethtown College’s innovative Master of Music Education program is the only one of its kind in the country to combine a focus on social-emotional learning, world music drumming, trauma-informed practice, and peacebuilding. Learn more about Elizabethtown College’s Master of Music Education program.