Award-winning music educator Meredith Reid ’10, ’17 helps students find their voice
After graduating from K-State and gaining a few years of experience as a teacher,
Meredith Reid ’10, ’17 returned to her hometown of Girard, Kansas, with a mission.
Girard High School had stopped offering a choral music program by the time she was
a student, and she regretted not having that opportunity. So years later, when the
Girard superintendent approached her and asked if she was interested in coming back
and trying to reignite the program, the answer for her was a definite “yes.”
“Something that we just talked a lot about even around my dinner table at home with
my family, was that there ought to be more opportunities for kids in rural areas,”
Reid said. “Just because it's a small rural town doesn't mean that there aren't really
talented kids who would really benefit from these high-quality musical experiences.”
She’s now been teaching choral music in Girard for the past six years, working with
grades 7-12, and the program continues to grow.
“We really started at ground zero, but the administration here has been extremely
supportive in building a schedule that supports students being in choir. And so we
started out really, really small, with just a few students, and with success each
year, we've been able to really build the program, and so now we have 40 high school
students in our high school concert choir, and are able to compete at contests.”
Reid’s dedication to her students and her passion for making music more accessible
recently earned her national recognition with a Milken Educator Award. Referred to
as the "Oscar of Teaching," this prestigious national honor highlights exceptional
educators for their excellence in education and leadership.
"We are so pleased to see Meredith recognized for her tremendous contribution to her students and to the Girard community," said Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson ’81, ’84, ’90, who also happens to be a K-State grad. "Her work not only to restore the school’s choral music program but to achieve state and national opportunities for her students and bring that pride to her community is what excellent teaching looks like."
‘A hometown feeling’
Reid is proud of the fact that she has a long history of educators in her family.
Her grandfather was a school superintendent, her grandmother was an English teacher,
and her father was an elementary teacher and a principal. She also grew up loving
music — she sang with her dad's family band, her mom plays piano, and she has fond
memories of singing at church.
“Just the two things kind of made sense to come together, to go into music education,”
she said.
She was drawn to K-State due to the reputation of its music education program, and
she was excited by the opportunity to join the equestrian team and live in the Smurthwaite
Scholarship and Leadership House. She also received the Tomorrow’s Teacher Scholarship.
“In my experience at K-State, one of the things that really stands out to me are the
relationships that my professors built with me,” Reid said. “Coming from a small town
where I live, in Girard, there's about 2,000 people, and we don't even have a stoplight.
So going to Manhattan as an incoming freshman was pretty overwhelming. You would think
on a campus as big as K-State, that you might get kind of lost in the crowd, and that
was not my experience at all. I was in the music building a lot, and my music professors
really built a strong personal relationship with me that has continued to this day.
It wasn't really something I would have expected at such a big university, but there's
really a hometown feeling.”
She’s tried to build those same types of personal relationships with her students
at Girard, empowering them to grow not just musically, but as people.
“I have a unique opportunity because I teach at both the middle school and the high
school, so I see some students all the way from seventh grade through 12th grade,”
she said. “This is my first year where I'll have had some students since seventh grade,
and they're going to graduate this year. And so the depth of those relationships and
the experiences that they've had together, with each other and with me, are really,
really beautiful.
“Of course, I love music — I want my students to love music and particularly singing.
But what's interesting is a lot of times when students go through the program, it's
their experiences together as a community that really stand the test of time and really
create those lasting memories. There's a lot of teamwork involved. There's a lot of
vulnerability in sharing their voice with those around them and collaborating together
to create a final product that they can really be proud of.”
One of Reid’s favorite traditions in the classroom is “song of the week,” where she
ends class every day for one week with the same song. Students get to write song ideas
on the whiteboard, and then she selects one.
“My No. 1 philosophy is that music is for all students, regardless of ability level,
and my job is to create a safe and supportive environment where they feel like they
can experiment and experience music in a positive way,” she said. “Sometimes I get
students that are not very comfortable around music, and so I pull in things that
may be reference points that they already know, like popular music. We do a lot of
movement, and we get them up and moving and engaged.”
Reid’s choir regularly performs throughout the community and competes at regional
and state music events, where the group earned the “superior” rating this past school
year. Many of her high school soloists receive top ratings at these regional and state
competitions, and one of her choral students was selected to join the Kansas State
University Summer Choral Institute, a highly selective program that admits only 48
students across the country each year.
“It's been really, really exciting, and we're still in the beginning stages, and I
think there's still a lot of room to grow,” Reid said. “It's really a joy, though,
to me to have been here and been a student longing for those kinds of musical opportunities,
and then to be able to experience it on the other end.”
Learn more about Reid and the Milken Educator Award.
— Photos courtesy of Milken Family Foundation.