Saturday, September 11, 2010

Anticipation

Only two more weeks until I move up to Boston. Thanks to my brother-in-law who is the king of online travel bookings, I have my flight date set. Boston here I come!

Just a few months ago I was waiting with anticipation to hear from the Abreu Fellowship Program. Waiting to find out if I had been selected to participate in this year's group of distinguished Fellows. Really my anticipation was accompanied by  fear and anxiety because let's face it, no one likes to be rejected. Fortunately I did receive the long awaited acceptance e-mail and all of my anticipation was replaced with excitement and joy. Summer months have past quickly with a lot of time spent planning and organizing in order to make my move to Boston smooth and worry-free.

Keeping with the theme of anticipation, I have been in preparation mode for the past couple of weeks now. Just making sure I have everything I need to have a successful experience at the NEC. I purchased a new laptop and am doing my best to remember how PowerPoint works because I have to give a brief presentation on day 1 of the Fellowship!  I am thankful to all my college professors who insisted on making me stand in front of the class and present my work, I have a feeling I will be tapping into all their tips and  recommendations soon!

Apart from preparing presentations I have been doing a lot of reading. Guided reading! Erik Holmgren, Education Director for the Abreu Fellows, has sent out a wonderful list of articles and materials to all of us anxious Fellows and that's what I've been focusing on lately. If you have some time and would like to take a look at some of the articles I've recently been reading, I recommend the NEC's "Journal for Music Education". In here you will find an article by Jose Antonio Abreu himself (Founder of Venezuela's El Sistema)  and an interview with Mark Churchill (Director of El Sistema USA).

I am anticipating a lot of wonderful things to come but most of all I am hoping to inspire and be inspired. The Fellowship has not even started officially and yet I feel like my journey has already begun. Let's take this journey together. If you have any feedback on the NEC's Journal articles, please post your comments here as I am looking forward to hearing from you. Until next time,

Let's share 'Notes'

No comments: