The beliefs that drove the El Sistema movement 40 years ago in Venezuela have been an inspiration to me ever since I learned about El Sistema my freshman year of college. I now have four and a half years of experience teaching with a number of El Sistema-inspired programs. The El Sistema music teaching method initially intrigued me and eventually became my passion because of its focus on social justice through the lens of music education. If you are interested in learning more about the history and different aspects of the El Sistema method, you can go here. I incorporate these beliefs into my teaching with all of my students.
I conducted an arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon with Juneau's Holiday Pops concert, which involved 20 of our elementary school students, last December.
In the summer of 2014, I was a program coordinator with a nonprofit known as VivePerĂș and spent time visiting my college-aged volunteers at their worksites each day. Part of this time was spent working with my teaching English volunteers and their classes!
While working with VivePerĂș, I visited a ghetto in Trujillo, Peru each week to educate children about important topics such as hygiene and healthy community practices with my fellow volunteers.