Music Student for a Day Program at OCC

As students progress through high school, their ideas of what they want to do after they graduate become more and more clear. For some, their dream college is already in sight. Applications sent in and auditions scheduled; but what about the kids who aren’t so sure? Programs have been arising that allow students to see what college life is really like, and personally, I believe that it could really be beneficial to students who aren’t so sure what they would like to pursue.

Weedsport High School students who were interested in a music career took a trip to OCC (Onondaga Community College) on October 28th to see what it was really like to be a music major for a day. With only juniors and seniors allowed to attend, only about eight students went and a little over 50 students in total attended. Before the day of the program, OCC asked what each student was interested in pursuing and what instrument would be chosen if auditioning.  Each student received a schedule that showed which classes they could sit in on and the large group would disperse into separate classes.

Theory lessons showed the love most of the professors had for music, and the enthusiasm they had for teaching something to the student. OCC’s music program is quite large for a community college. After a theory class, students swapped to a Music History class and the current college students were learning about Bach. Each class was fast paced, but I could tell that each visiting high school student was enticed.

The group then ended the day with different groups of kids going into specific instrument classes specifying in their chosen instrument they would audition with. From what I could gather from the day, it caused a lot of excitement in older high school students to get involved in the college experience. I know personally that a lot of Weedsport music students enjoyed spending the day with people as in love with music as they were.