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CMEA President Zullinger Summer 2024 Article
by Chad Zullinger, CMEA President
Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to reflect on this past academic year, celebrate what went well, and think about your areas of growth for the upcoming year. For myself, I just finished my first year as Assistant Professor of Music Education at Sacramento State! Looking back across my teaching career, I have had my share of “first years.” I can honestly say that as I reflect on year 24, I’m getting better and handling those experiences of a “first year.” And yes, I still experience all of the feelings that are associated with the first year of a new job: i.e., planning and updating curriculum, adjusting to a new teaching schedule, building rapport in relationships with students and colleagues, and work/life balance.
As many of you know, I am in the midst of working through my dissertation for my DMA in Music Education through Boston University. In some respects, and I share this with my students, this is my homework as a doctoral candidate/student. Don’t get me wrong, I love this process and the research study I am immersed in when I’m not teaching, working through CMEA activities, being a husband/father, etc.
The reason I share is that not unlike many of you, living through this choice we made to pursue music teaching as a career, whether we are a preservice music teacher, 0-5 inservice teacher, mid-career, PK-12, Higher Ed, retired, I enjoy the variety of hats I wear, as a learner, teacher, scholar, and the activities through CMEA I’ve served on for nearly all of the 24 years I’ve taught, and in my current role as President. In every path and role I have traveled this past year, I could not have survived if it were not for the colleagues and mentors in my professional life as a music educator. As I mentioned in the spring magazine, mentorship, in its various forms and possibilities, is one of the reasons I have a career.
For me, it isn’t something I sought out or intentionally signed up for, it simply has been an integral thread throughout my career. I can’t imagine mentorship not being a component of my professional life. I love to learn, to lean in with curiosity and imagination in conversations with my students and colleagues. CMEA is an organization with a rich history of those who serve, and as a result, those who have led. I believe that service and mentorship are essential elements of CMEA’s identity and purpose. Personally, I can’t remember a time when this wasn’t the case.
Association for Popular Music Education (APME)
Before heading to Washington D.C. for the NAfME National Assembly, I stopped by Los Angeles for some of my own professional development at the Association for Popular Music Education (APME) 2024 Conference hosted on the campus of USC. Throughout my career, I love the opportunity to attend professional development conferences! Conferences allow me to reflect on my work through amazing presentations and the perspectives of various presenters, helping me to learn and grow from these experiences. Also, in terms of my role in CMEA, if you take a look at the California 3-2-1 report I gave at NASS 2024, one of the ‘opportunities’ I shared for CMEA was to continue to make connections and partnerships with arts and music organizations both nationally and across the state.
Throughout this conference, my curiosity began with questions about the intersection between California’s music industry, what our Past-president, Anne Fennell has called, “California’s creative economy,” and the roles or ‘hats’ we wear as music educators. During Rome Thomas’s keynote address, I was able to visualize what this might look like from his concept of “lanes” students might explore as a career in these music industry jobs.
With all of the fantastic work California music educators are currently doing to facilitate authentic music experiences for their students, I really do enjoy the opportunity to look at how we might expand and create possibilities for all students in music classrooms, in schools everywhere throughout California.
Collegiate Leadership Advocacy Summit
Several months prior to the National Assembly, I was contacted by the NAfME Collegiate Council Co-Chairs, Steve Kelly and Katrina Cox, to deliver a keynote address for collegiate attendees from around the country participating in the Collegiate Leadership Advocacy Summit (CLAS). My initial reaction was, “wow!” This feeling evolved into, “I’d better come up with something awesome to share with these collegiate leaders across the country.”
This was an extraordinary moment to share some of my thoughts and ideas around persistence and resiliency in music teaching and learning, and connecting those ideas to the unique perspectives that these preservice music educators are currently bringing to the profession. You can look at the slide deck I shared by clicking on that image.
I highlight the term current, because as it was observed during their summit, preservice music educators are here now in the conversation, contributing their voice and ideas in a similar way our state leaders were tasked with during the division/regional workgroup sessions. In fact, the collegiates joined us later on Day 2 in our workgroups, as well as Hill Day, to be engaged and included in our workgroups as leaders of an important segment of NAfME membership. California Collegiate Council Past-president, Daniel Crispino, represented us exceptionally well with professionalism and vision for the profession he will officially begin next fall at Red Bluff High School in the CMEA Northern section.
2024 National Assembly and Hill Day
Executive Administrator, Trish Adams, myself, and the NAfME Western Division leadership, Anne Fennell, President-elect, Michael Stone, President, and Scott Hedgecock, Past-president attended the 2024 NAfME Executive Board meetings and Hill Day in Washington D.C. This was my first opportunity to attend a NAfME National Assembly along with executive boards from state MEAs from across the country. The theme this year was turning Ideas into Practice as a way to discuss and engage with the findings from the 2023 National Assembly participants and merge with what the current thinking and envisioning possibilities for the year ahead.
What I will share is that a common thread among all organizations is the idea of maintaining effective communication. Communication as an opportunity, challenge, in and some cases, an exemplar. Some questions and thoughts that came to mind for CMEA: how do we make and sustain connections throughout all 9 CMEA state sections, council of representatives, collegiates, and the executive board? How do we identify where “bottlenecks” occur in the flow of information through the organization? Our guiding question throughout the day was: How can we ensure that our time together is engaged in learning that is meaningful (both now and in the future) and that lasts beyond the National Assembly? I am hopeful we can work to improve the channels of communication throughout the CMEA executive board, sections, and professional learning opportunities from our Council of Representatives.
Hill Day
On Wednesday June 12, our California delegation and more than 300 music education leaders and advocates convened in Washington, DC, to share the importance of music education with California legislators. NAfME Western Division and CMEA leaders were among the many voices from across the country advocating for music education during the annual National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Hill Day. When we met with members of Congress, we shared our personal experiences of music education’s positive impact on students and communities in California schools. These anecdotes helped facilitate conversation focused on how California legislators can support federal programs and legislation ensuring all students have access to a well-rounded education that includes music.
