Music 176r: Music and Disability was an opportunity for me to bridge the realms of scholarship and service, and to use that bridge as a platform for contemplating my own work with MIHNUET, a student organization dedicated to building positive relationships between Harvard undergraduates and elderly residents at local nursing homes through music performances. In particular, the theories and models we learned in class helped me frame my work with MIHNUET and think about the ways in which MIHNUET can better serve the elderly. At the same time, I was able to bring my weekend experiences with MIHNUET directly in conversation with the ideas and readings we were discussing in the classroom. These conversations then became the raw material and inspiration for a new initiative I developed for MIHNUET as my final project in the class. Through this initiative, MIHNUET members will not just perform music for the elderly, they will perform with the elderly through sing-a-longs. This initiative will allow MIHNUET to build more intimate relationships with the elderly and to offer the elderly a chance to exercise creative and artistic expression—something they do not usually have a chance to do. Without Music 176r, this initiative would never have happened.
Music 176r was also an opportunity for me to raise big questions. It challenged me to think carefully about the role of music in people’s lives, how people’s experiences of music are structured by societal norms and assumptions, and how participation in cultural life is restricted for certain people. In doing so, it also gave me the chance to engage deeply in critical self-reflection. Indeed, the readings and guest lectures gave me new perspectives through which to examine the role of MIHNUET in the community as both a service and a music organization.
Looking forward, Music 176r has inspired me to think about how my future work as a researcher or scholar and my engagement with the world as a human being can continue to shape each other for the rest of my life. It showed me how my curiosity for understanding the world around me can strengthen and be strengthened by my passion for making the very same world a better place.