MENC Collegiate Program Celebrates 60 Years of Supporting Future Music Educators
RESTON, VA (October 5, 2007) — MENC: The National Association for Music Education announced the 60th anniversary of its membership for future music educators, MENC Collegiate. The program allows college students studying to become music teachers to join MENC, the professional association for music educators, at special reduced dues.
“This 60-year anniversary of MENC Collegiate that coincides with MENC’s landmark centennial anniversary substantiates the significant leadership and important contributions that past MENC members have made to the future of this great organization,” said Jill Sullivan, professor of music at Arizona State University and national chairperson of the MENC Collegiate program. “This vision to build a bridge between pre-service and in-service teachers surely is an important factor of the strength and growth of this organization today.”
MENC was founded in 1907. As early as the 1930s, music education students were known to gather informally to discuss the association’s Music Educators Journal (MEJ). These so-called Journal Clubs eventually added other activities to their meetings, and by the late 1940s, many groups gathered regularly. In 1947, Thurber H. Madison of the School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, chaired an MENC Committee on Student Membership and Student Activities. This committee concluded that a new affiliated organization for college music education students could “help reduce the rather abrupt and formidable transition between graduation and professional teaching.” Based on the committee finding 60 years ago, MENC established the MENC Collegiate program, and its mission is much the same today. (While MENC Collegiate dues today are considerably less than active MENC member dues, they have increased somewhat since 1947, when national dues were $1.50, and local dues were 25 cents.) Madison was named the first National Collegiate Chairperson, serving from 1947 to 1952.
“Thank you to all former chapter advisors and those who continue to serve the collegiate populace of MENC,” continued Sullivan. “These students are the future leaders of this organization. It’s an exciting time to be the national chair of MENC Collegiate.”
For more information, including the monthly e-mail newsletter Collegiate NewsLink, visit Collegiate.
MENC: The National Association for Music Education, the world’s largest arts education organization, marks its centennial in 2007 as the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. More than 130,000 members represent all levels of teaching 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. MENC’s activities and resources have been largely responsible for the establishment of music education as a profession, for the promotion and guidance of music study as an integral part of the school curriculum, and for the development of the National Standards for Arts Education.
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