{"id":1397,"date":"2015-10-01T20:20:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T01:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mynavigatornews.com\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2019-12-11T23:21:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T04:21:39","slug":"the-woman-behind-the-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=1397","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE: The Woman Behind the Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alyssa Bertrand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beautiful music is what I hear. The sounds of flutes playing to a bird’s voice, the trumpets forming the sounds of a royal guard entering a room, and the percussion playing as if something was about to happen. The sounds of every instrument in the band makes the most beautiful sound one may ever hear. The director moves her hands so smoothly with a slight bounce as if moving with the music, her students all paying close attention to every movement and every word coming out of the director\u2019s mouth. \u201cThud thud thud,\u201d the sound your shoe makes when it falls to the ground in order to keep the beat. When the song is over, you may hear a clash of the symbols falling to the ground when the student holding them is not paying attention. Nevertheless, the music coming from Stephanie Blackwell-Nelson\u2019s Liberty-Eylau High School band hall is always wonderful.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Blackwell-Nelson is the band director of the high school band at Liberty-Eylau. She has been the high school director for ten years. Before working at the high school, she worked at the middle school as the band director. She has alway had a love for music and even as a little girl she wanted to be a band director, accomplish great things with every band she taught, and guide each student with her help. She believes that every school should have a band or at least some form of musical program in order to keep the arts alive. The fine arts departments are normally the first to be cancelled when the budget shrinks\u00a0but Nelson\u00a0shows that band programs and music itself can have a positive effect on every student.<\/p>\n

She attended and graduated from Texas A&M University-Texarkana with a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) with a major in business. Even though TAMU-T did not offer a music degree, she still had a few options that gave her the degree she always wanted. Nelson is someone who will find an opportunity in any situation no matter how hard and difficult it may be. TAMU-T helped her reach her dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas A&M University- Texarkana is one of the best places to go in my opinion. It is close to the community. The professor will help as much as they can and they don\u2019t just teach they make sure you actually learn the material.\u00a0There are other colleges out there that are bigger but to me TAMU-T was the best of me. Everyone has \u2018their college\u2019 and this was mine,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n

She smiled and continued, \u201cWhen I was little, of course I wanted to go off far away from my family and wanted to experience the \u2018college life.\u2019 When someone thinks, about how much one truly spends of that great college life everyone talks about then they will see the huge difference in staying at home and going to a local university, then to go off and having to stay in a dorm.”<\/p>\n

She added that TAMU-T is not just a university, is it a family. “It may be a huge family, but everyone helps each other. People are friendly even if they do not know you. People hold doors open, and wave and say things like \u201cHey, how are you?\u201d and \u201cHave a good day\u201d when you happen to be in the elevators with someone. No, they do not know you, but the atmosphere of the campus is joyous.”<\/p>\n

Nelson said\u00a0multiple times that TAMU-T is the reason she is where she is today. They allowed her to continue with her dream and never stop. She tells her students that this university is a great place to go and she would recommend her students to attend TAMUT.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t let you give up. They don\u2019t let life struggles tear you down. The professor will works with you and will do everything in their power and under school policies they can in order to get you to pass and never stop believing,\u201d she said. Nelson promotes the university everywhere she goes. She even tells people from other schools about her experience at TAMU-T.<\/p>\n

Nelson has been the director of many award-winning bands. Her current band earned a sweepstakes two years in a row just recently and is working towards another one this year. In a matter of three years, she helped over 100 students advance to State in solo and ensemble, never leaving the competition with less than 30 medals each year at the state level. These accomplishments are just a few of her many goals that she has achieved. She plans on continuing to excel in her teaching and helping the students improved as much as possible.<\/p>\n

She pushes her students to achieve their goals like TAMUT did for her. Nelson is excited to see what TAMUT has in store for the future. Nelson is overjoyed to hear that the university is starting a marching band. \u00a0Nelson said\u00a0joyfully, \u201cThere is not a better staff anywhere I have attended or visited than Texas A&M University-Texarkana!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alyssa Bertrand Beautiful music is what I hear. The sounds of flutes playing to a bird’s voice, the trumpets forming the sounds of a royal guard entering a room, and the percussion playing as if something was about to happen. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208,143,199,142],"tags":[211,212],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-artsplus","category-music","category-texarkana","tag-band","tag-liberty-eylau"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3odG9-mx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5391,"url":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=5391","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":0},"title":"Before Buying Your First Guitar","author":"Shelby Johnson","date":"May 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Finding the right guitar can be a fun and exciting experience. 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