Mission Moment: Singing Around the House

Sunny McGovern

Sep 25, 2019

I have worked with children of all ages and levels for over 10 years in a slew of camp and music-related lessons, activities, and other programs. When I came to the West Suburban YMCA earlier this year, I began taking on voice students, the first of whom was a 12-year-old middle school girl.  I will call her Jane for this Mission Moment.  Jane an I started out with the basics to get a sense of her taste in music.  Jane loves Lana Del Rey and Demi Lovato.

Over the course of 12 sessions, Jane expanded the limits of her voice, her musical knowledge and developed her sense of herself. By the end of the schoolyear, Jane was really becoming a much more confident singer. The progress she was making was fantastic, but I did not realize the impact that music was having on her life until I received an email from her foster father. It read, “Dear Sunny, Jane has been singing around the house a lot lately. She had a rough childhood so it’s especially nice to see her so happy and singing freely at home and sometimes in public. Thank you!”  

I attribute Jane’s increased confidence not only to learning musical concepts, but to the individualized attention and custom curriculum our lesson structure provides. This kind of holistic learning helped her believe in herself, and I hope to do the same for all other youth in our community.