School of Music students experience growth while serving others

Rooted in faith, Baylor University’s School of Music demonstrates a commitment to uniting service and music to transform lives and to show that the power, majesty and joy of music are for everyone.

The School of Music performs more than 350 concerts each year, offering beautiful music for enjoyment and enlightenment. This in itself is an incredible service to the community, as the majority of the performances are free. However, the School is committed to blending music and service to impact Waco, Central Texas and the world.

That unique combination is at the core of what makes a Baylor education — in this case for music majors and other students participating in the School of Music’s programs — such a transformative experience.

For Unique Learners

On Monday evenings, children with special needs between the ages of four and 18 gather with a group of Baylor music majors to learn about music. Oso Musical was founded in the fall of 2012 and resembles an elementary general music class, engaging students in a wide variety of activities that follow a customized curriculum, adapted to accommodate each of the participants.

“Oso provides a safe space for unique learners to explore their musical interests and to feel as uninhibited in their participation as possible,” said Jill Gusukuma, administrative associate with the Baylor School of Music and program director for Oso Musical. “It is a judgment–free zone, and Oso Buddies [the participants] really begin to grow in their confidence, develop motor and cooperative skills and feel a sense of belonging among similar peers and really devoted college student role models.”

Oso Buddies participate in singing, dancing, playing instruments, basic music notation and a myriad of other developmental activities. However, they are not the only ones who benefit from the program. The Baylor student volunteers join Oso Musical for a variety of reasons — personal investment in children with special needs, desire for teaching experience, wanting to learn more about inclusion — but they all share in a similar experience of personal growth.

“Many of these students are music education majors who are getting a great opportunity for real teaching and mentoring,” Gusukuma said. “I think many of them are surprised at their own growth, both as teachers and in their perspective of the special needs community. It’s really rewarding for them.”

Music Around the World

The School of Music is an active participant in Baylor Missions, sending two groups of students on international trips this past year. Randall Bradley, professor of church music, director of the Center for Christian Music Studies and the Ben H. Williams Professor of Music, led the Baylor Men’s Choir on a mission trip to Kenya, and Alex Parker, senior lecturer in jazz studies and director of the Baylor Jazz Program, led the Baylor Jazz Ensemble to Greece.

During the trip to Kenya, the Men’s Choir sang in churches, schools and wherever they found a group of people gathered. They also helped to refurbish a school, organized and served over 400 people in a medical clinic and met the needs of many in the communities they visited by providing necessities like shoes.

“This was the most meaningful trip that I have ever experienced with students. The guys served the people of Kenya sacrificially even when they were exhausted, hot and hungry,” Bradley said. “They connected deeply with people everywhere we went and always had enough energy to sing and interact with yet another group of people who were eager to hear us sing.”

In Greece, the Jazz Ensemble performed at eight different venues — a Christian teen camp, a church service, a church cultural night, a Syrian refugee camp, an Iranian refugee family camp and three town squares where the church that sponsored the trip is setting up site churches.

Parker recalled one of many special memories from the trip: “I was talking to three gentlemen from Damascus and one spoke English. He thanked me and all three shook my hand, and he said, ‘Thank you, thank you for coming here and playing for us. You brought us joy. Sometimes we go weeks or months without joy, and today, you brought us joy. Did you see the looks of the faces of these people?’ I replied, ‘Did you see the looks on the faces of my band? Tonight, we also had joy!’”