Contents

Notes from the Collaborative

A Note from the Collaborative Director

Defining Collaboration: Collaborative Undergraduate Research Across the Disciplines

Collaborative Opportunities

Research and Academic Travel Funding Opportunities

Academic Travel Award Recipients

Celebrating Student and Faculty/Staff Collaborations

Student Profiles

Important Dates

Mar. 25, 2011 Collaborative Summer-Fall Grant applications due

Mar. 31 - Apr. 2, 2011 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)

Apr. 18, 2011 Collaborative Continuation Grant applications due

May 2, 2011 Student Academic Travel Grant and Attendee Grant applications due

Student Profile: Danielle Schroth 

On January 20-21 I attended the National Band Association Wisconsin-Chapter 2011 College All-Star Honor Band in Wisconsin Rapids. There were many reasons I decided to participate in this event. It was an honor to be selected from a pool of many applicants to represent the St. Norbert College Music Department while doing something I enjoy. I also attended for my own personal development as a musician and a future music educator, because while participating in this honors group I would be exposed to different directors and their conducting styles, different musical literature, and fellow colleagues and musicians from colleges across the  state. 

The event consisted of twelve hours of rehearsals in two days. I received the music prior to the event, and when I arrived at the event with fellow St. Norbert College students and other college students we worked on assembling the music for our concert the next evening. Throughout rehearsals I had the opportunity to perfect the music I had already prepared while working with multiple conductors. I learned a lot from each conductor. Each conductor had his or her own interpretation of the piece he or she chose to conduct, and each conductor had a unique individual manner of rehearsing the group.

While rehearsing with the different conductors, I learned many things that will assist me in my future career. I saw a variety of conducting techniques and rehearsal procedures. There were some that I liked and others that I didn't. Rehearsing with multiple conductors gave me an opportunity to be exposed to these different styles, and I could assess whether I might use these styles as a conductor myself. During rehearsal I also started listening to the music more objectively, creating my own personal opinions about the music, and comparing my assessment with those of the directors. It was interesting to see how many times my thoughts matched theirs, and how often the directors targeted something different than what I was thinking of. Attending the conference motivated me to start thinking as a future music educator.