The 2018 AMEA Professional Development Conference was a great success for the Collegiate Division. The conference kicked off with the first-ever Collegiate Orientation for the conference on Thursday, and it served as a gateway for pre-professional music educators to make the most of their conference. Guest speakers – including AMEA President Susan Smith, Collegiate Secretary Tyler Jones, first year teacher Savannah Smith, and second year teacher Stacy Daniels – discussed how the conference is the perfect opportunity for collegiate members to build their professional network with their peers, veteran educators, and individuals in the music industry; to gain new ideas, strategies, and resources on music education from phenomenal presenters and clinicians; and to get out of their comfort zone and experience professional growth outside of the classroom. The orientation was very beneficial and we hope for it to be successful and useful for years to come.
Collegiates benefited from numerous sessions on topics ranging from edTPA to how to interview for your first teaching job. The Collegiate Division/Higher Education Division mixer was held on Thursday night and helped strengthen the organic partnership between these two divisions and allowed teacher and students to engage outside of the classroom. The collegiate luncheon was held on Friday. We had representation from 14 collegiate chapters from across the state. We had a successful lunch and business meeting, where we began planning a state Hill Day where we can lobby for music education on the state level.
We held successful elections and the four Executive Board members from 2017 rolled off after a year of service (Madison Baldwin, President, Jacksonville State University; Tyler Jones, Secretary, University of Montevallo; Brenton Nash, Treasurer, University of Alabama) and Jordan Banks, VP/President-Elect, assumed the office of President.
The new Collegiate Executive Board for the 2018-2019 year is as follows:
- President: Jordan Banks, University of Montevallo
- VP/President-Elect: DeLee Benton, University of Montevallo
- Secretary: Kylee Berggren, Samford University
- Treasurer: DeShawn Sewer, Alabama A&M University
Written by:
Jordan Hare Banks and Tyler Jones
