WFMT FOR STUDENTS

Music Therapy Study Abroad Programs

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:55:06 -0700

Two years ago, the American Music Therapy Association Students (AMTAS) asked the each of the seven regional student organizations to create an international project. The Great Lakes Region, under the leadership of student president Jeff Wolfe and advisor Jody Conradi Stark, MT-BC, chose to survey the colleges and universities offering music therapy to see if there was an option for studying abroad. The end result is a brochure of options for studying music therapy abroad. Hopefully, it will be updated every year or two as programs are added and new destinations become available.

Bernadette Skodack, Music Therapy Intern, Eastern Michigan University

Download Brochure

On Vacation

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 15:23:46 -0700

Window to the World is on vacation for the month of August!

If you took part in a music therapy program abroad over the break, we want to hear about it! Whether you spend time studying at a university, earning fieldwork hours, or using music therapy techniques on another type of trip, please consider sharing your experience with your peers around the world.

Contact Rose at assistant@wfmt.info for more information.

Music Therapy in Singapore

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 22:46:23 -0700

When I applied for a music therapy position in Singapore located half way around the world from my hometown, I thought of it more as wishing on a shooting star.

I grew up in the state of Florida from the United States and completed my undergraduate music therapy studies at Queens University of Charlotte North Carolina. During my studies we were given several opportunities to complete research in areas of our own interest, which for me was the application of music therapy in international settings.

After graduating I spent a year living abroad in Germany working in a non-related music therapy field. During that year I traveled around Europe visiting 11 countries and 46 cities. I enjoyed immersing myself in the various cultures and languages, but I missed practicing music therapy. I saw the posting for the position at KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore and didn’t waste anytime sending in my application. This job would not only allow me to continue exposing myself to new cultures and practices, but also challenge me as a professional in the field that I am very passionate about.

I look forward to immersing myself in the Singaporean culture for the next two years, broadening my repertoire, and learning how to be most successful at facilitating music therapy interventions for this setting and population. Someday, it is my aspiration to work in post-conflict and third world countries using music therapy. I believe the knowledge and experience I will gain while working in Singapore will better prepare me for such future opportunities and increase my effectiveness as a music therapist working with patients from different cultural backgrounds. What started off as a wish on a shooting star has now become my reality, and I feel very lucky to have been given such an opportunity.

Ashley Spears MT-BC, KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore

Connecting with Ugandan Children through Music

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 21:56:49 -0700

In the fall of 2009, I had the opportunity to volunteer in Uganda. My cousin, Renee Bach, founded a non-profit organization called Serving His Children (SHC) (www.servinghischildren.org), and I went to work with her for two months. Working with members of the small community of Masese, Uganda, we fed over nine hundred children twice each week. We cared for sick and malnourished children, made hospital visits, and led a daily Bible club.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this trip was using my music therapy training from Converse College (Spartanburg, SC) to connect with the people of Masese. I was able to speak only a few words of Luganda, the local language. Nevertheless, I was able to use music to build relationships with children in a matter of minutes. Music truly made the language barrier irrelevant. My music therapy training enabled me to spontaneously adapt songs to include words of Luganda and to simplify them for the children to follow and learn more easily.

The children of Masese loved singing and dancing with me. They were eager to learn all they could, and they delighted in sharing their own music with me in turn. Two adolescent girls in particular tutored me enthusiastically. On more than one occasion, they brought notebooks of handwritten songs from school to teach me, singing for me while I recorded their voices and asked questions about each song. They were thrilled at my interest, and we grew immensely close during our music sessions. My music therapy training enabled me to connect with the people of Uganda in ways that I wouldn’t have thought possible.

Elly MacPhail, Therapy Student, Converse College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S.A.

Window to the World: Thailand

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 09:55:36 -0700

In 2008, Mahidol University, College of Music hosted the first-ever Thailand Music Therapy Forum. There are very few formally-trained music therapists currently working in Thailand, though there is a growing interest in the profession. The College of Music at Mahidol University about 15 kilometers outside of Bangkok, is in the process of creating a Master’s degree program in Music Therapy. In a partnership with the University of Kansas Music Therapy program, US students are able to study abroad at the Mahidol University, Salaya campus, and provide clinical services to both children and adults in two Bangkok-area hospitals. In summer 2009, five music therapy students spent one-month in this study abroad experience. When asked about how this experience changed them students reported:

“I was able to not only visit another country, but I was also able to interact with the people and experience a new way of life and a new way of thought. At the same time, I also feel like I made a contribution by my participation in the presentations to the students at Mahidol and through the clinical experiences at the rehabilitation center.” 
“I am much more patient with myself and others, I appreciate and feel privileged to be educated as a student. I AM SO GLAD I WENT ON THIS JOURNEY WHEN I DID.”

“I know that I have changed as a result of my experience because I have a newfound motivation. In Thailand, the students saw an education as a privilege. I returned to the U.S. ready to learn and ready to take advantage of the education that I am receiving. I want to continue advocating our profession and our association to current and prospective students. I am finding it hard to sleep in because I feel like I have so much to do! While abroad, we were always on the go. We were experiencing and learning new things everyday. I came home wanting to continue this journey professionally and personally.”

“I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. By completing practicum work in Thailand I have further honed my skills professionally. The experience also pushed me in another direction in where I want to work clinically.”

Dena Register, Ph.D., MT-BC, Associate Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy, University of Kansas, U.S.A.
Please contact Dr. Register for more information: register@ku.edu
The website for the College of Music at Mahidol is: http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/
Photo credit: http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/about/about_overview.php