Music in Our Schools Month | #FeatureFriday Mrs. Jennifer Erickson

Today’s #FeatureFriday goes out to Mrs. Jennifer Erickson for being a teacher, conductor, and mentor to young students in the Central Florida community. Mrs. Erickson grew up singing and playing piano and percussion through her secondary school years. She has since learned to play viola, violin, cello, bass, and French Horn. She is now the Orchestra Director at Southwest Middle School where she teaches six classes of orchestra daily for four different levels, from beginning to advanced.

We asked Mrs. Erickson when she realized she wanted to be a teacher, she said, “I have always wanted to be a teacher. My mother was a teacher and I liked school. In early elementary school I wondered why other children were not singing the right notes. In middle school, I helped teach class when my music teacher was absent. By the time I was in high school I was student conducting, coaching my own ensembles for evaluation, and usually getting out of my other classes to teach music all day when my teacher was absent. My band and chorus teachers were major influences on my career choice, because they allowed me to take such an involved leadership role".

Once Mrs. Erickson graduated high school she attended Stetson University where she received her undergraduate degree in music education. She then went to the University of Miami for her Masters degree in Orchestral Conducting. Ms. Erickson has been teaching in the public school system for twenty-three years and is now on her sixth year at Southwest Middle School.

When asked why Mrs. Erickson thinks music education is important, she answered, “I believe everyone should have the opportunity to do music because it teaches so many wonderful things: cooperation, communication, dedication, persistence, responsibility, trust, self-expression, and so much more. Music can transcend barriers: language, ethnicity, and socio-economics. We can all make beautiful things happen together. Music creates bonds of acceptance, friendship, and family that many students don’t have anywhere else in life.”

Mrs. Erickson enjoys teaching music because it is her passion and she can’t imagine doing anything else for a career. One of her favorite parts of teaching is seeing the students learn how to play an instrument and watching them discover their incredible expressive potential that music can create.