Music Maker

During the summer of 2022, while still a student at the New England Conservatory, Zion Dyson, Ed.M.'24, piloted a music program for children living in Prey Touch Commune, a rural community in Cambodia. It was such a great experience that she made it a goal to one day return and expand the program. This academic year, thanks to winning a Fulbright scholarship (one of three from the Ed School), that’s exactly what Dyson is doing. 

You started thinking about the Fulbright while you were at the Ed School, correct? I considered applying as either an English teaching assistant or student researcher. Through HGSE Fulbright panels, I learned that the research/ study award would give me the freedom and support to continue working on my project. However, as the application deadline grew closer, I became unsure about applying. My HGSE graduation would mark my first time in “the real world,” my first time out of school, and I wasn’t sure if I should prioritize the Fulbright over beginning my career in the United States. I brought this up at my first meeting with Tricia, my Student-Alumni Mentoring Initiative (SAMI) mentor, and she enthusiastically encouraged me to apply. 

Tell us about the original music program that you created. I worked with a colleague to pilot music integration into an English language program for three weeks. The program serves around 400 students in grades 3–12. Students in this community do not have access to music education in school or extracurricular programs, and we wanted to address this need through music integration. We taught nursery rhymes and rhythm games to students to improve their awareness of prosody, the patterns of stress and intonation in language. We also taught music lessons to the English language teachers so they could use music in their classes. 

How are you expanding this work with the Fulbright? While the pilot was successful, we realized that our goal of creating a self-sustaining music integration program was more challenging than we once thought. One teacher, Vichet, now frequently includes music in his classes, and he says it makes learning much more enjoyable for his students. However, the other teachers require additional professional development to become comfortable implementing music. We also noticed additional problems of practice that could not be addressed through music integration: reliance on rote learning, limited opportunities for students to practice conversational English, and the need for culturally relevant teaching materials. With this Fulbright ... we will study student and teacher experience in the program and consider methods of change. We will also learn about Cambodian music and arts practices and consider ways to integrate culturally sustaining arts into the English language program. 

Stepping back, what made you decide to apply to HGSE after graduating from the conservatory? I studied jazz vocal performance with a music-in-education concentration. The head of the program was current HGSE Ph.D. student Josh Gilbert, Ed.M.’17, an NEC and HGSE alum. His courses were life changing. I learned about music integration, when music is taught alongside other subjects to increase student engagement and understanding. Thinking back to the meaningful music-integrated experiences in high school and college, I wondered how I could make music integration a central part of my career. Josh recommended I pursue a master’s degree in education. I researched graduate programs and found that HGSE would give me the freedom I needed to explore this and other topics through its Human Development and Education Program with an Arts and Learning Concentration. Seeing Josh as a role model gave me the confidence to apply, and I’m so glad I did! 

You’ve been performing for a long time. I have been a performer since kindergarten. My elementary school had an incredible music and arts program. Every year, each grade performed an original musical, with a script and songs written by the music teacher. In second grade, I joined the glee club, where I sang my first solo, surprising my family with “Great Green Globs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts.” Then, in fifth grade, my parents encouraged me to audition for a local junior theatre production of Annie. I only agreed when they promised to get me a puppy if I was cast as the titular role. They were just as shocked as I was when we found out I would be playing Annie. This show changed my life, and I have been a performer (and dog owner) ever since.