This week I had the opportunity to sit down with Shannen Snyder, a music education major here at IUP. One thing that makes Shannen stand out is being the president of SAI (Sigma Alpha Iota), an all female professional music fraternity. When she isn’t super busy with music, she is involved with the Western Equestrian Team.
Through SAI, Shannen helps recruit young women and encourage them to become further involved with music. She explained that there are multiple social events (attending a minimum of 1 is required for members) for the young women of SAI to allow them to learn about each other. In the future she hopes to become more involved in the community and offer an “instrument petting zoo” to young musicians. With this activity, school children would be able to get a feel for what it would be like to play different instruments. This sounds like a very creative, fun way to introduce kids to unfamiliar instruments and get kids interested in music.
Although finishing up her last year can lead to some stress, Shannen says that keeping her vision in mind helps her to stay motivated. She says that she knows what she has to do to achieve her goals and that thought helps her to keep going. Even though she is very ready to graduate, Shannen pushes herself to complete everything she needs to be successful and hopefully score her dream job after graduation.
Shannen had a great message to aspiring musicians and incoming students. “It used to be that music was a man’s world, but it’s not like that anymore.” She says that you just have to keep going and that, “women can do anything a man can.” In an industry that has typically been associated with men, it is great to hear that women are really starting to emerge in this field. Shannen knows that you can do what you dream of in life as long as you stay focused.
Shannen is a senior and will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Music. Her dream job is to be an elementary music teacher. We wish her a great last year finishing up at IUP and the best in her future!