Life design

During the summer of 2022, as part of my ISM, Music in Special Education, I interned at Alternatives for Children, a nonprofit preschool for children from 2 to 5 with disabilities. This organization has a lot of supports and services for the students who attend, including speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, art therapy and music therapy. This is one of few schools in the area that provides music therapy. They have four locations around Long Island and my internship took me to three of the four. This organization has both one-on-one sessions for students with IEPs and group enrichment sessions for entire classes.

At my internship, I learned about what a music therapist is and what the job entails. I had not heard of music therapy before college and even then I only knew the basics. My internship taught me so much about what it means to be a music therapist. I learned about the process of finding and creating music to help students with disabilities work on different skills in the areas of communication skills, social skills, behavioral skills, regulatory skills, motor skills and academic skills. I learned about other responsibilities that a music therapist has like filling out IEP progress reports and sanitizing their instruments. 

Using the skill I learned in my ISM, I could become a music therapist. This is something I am knowledgeable about because of my internship. To become a music therapist, I would need to get a masters in music therapy. There are programs all over the country, and the one that is closest and most applicable to what I want would probably be Molloy College’s. To attend this program you need to be proficient in vocal performance, playing the piano, and playing the guitar. I currently already have proficiency in vocal performance and have begun taking piano classes.