by Desiree M. Cooper
Communication Services
"Each and every day I have a goal to be a better educator than I was the day before. I ultimately just want my students to succeed and grow to love music the way I do." - James Golden
James Golden is pursuing a master's in secondary education at Eastern New Mexico University to become a fully licensed teacher.
The Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society member, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from ENMU in 2012, is the director of choirs for Portales Junior High and Portales High School.
The recipient of numerous "outstanding soloist" awards from the Clovis El Desayuno Kiwanis piano festival joined the graduate program "out of necessity. As a student with a bachelor's of science in communicative disorders with a minor in piano, I was not completely equipped to teach choir at the secondary level."
A challenge in Mr. Golden's job has been "learning to adapt to being a teacher. I had little to no classes in education as a communicative disorders major. I have had to learn to teach and be effective at it and each day I am learning something new about my field of work.
"The graduate program has allowed to me to take classes that prepare me to be a teacher and, most importantly, they fulfill requirements needed to be a licensed educator in the state of New Mexico. The classes I have taken have really prepared me to be an effective and efficient educator."
The National Honor Society member says ENMU has taught him "invaluable skills that are important to any students fresh in the workforce. When heading up a program you need to be able to adapt and think creatively.
"Eastern has really prepared me to do this in terms of designing curriculum to better my programs. I have learned to adapt situations to be beneficial to me and my students and learned skills that allow me to keep abreast in the fields of research relating to my work and make sure the students I am teaching are getting a quality education."
Mr. Golden, who enjoys being a musician, water and snow skiing, traveling, camping, and spending time with family and friends, chose to attend ENMU because the tuition was "extremely reasonable and the communicative disorder and music programs are stellar. I began teaching choir and started on my master's here because the faculty works so closely with the schools I am employed by. The Education pr"I like to think that my teaching really instills a love of music in the lives of my students. Music is such an important part of everyone's lives and in my teaching I am hopeful that I have a positive impact on each and every student I come in contact with," said the All-State Choir member, who has received high ratings from the Southeast New Mexico Music Educators Association's district solo and ensemble festivals on trumpet and voice.
"I hold my choir programs up to a high standard and the students have the same expectations and are very hard workers."
Mr. Golden, who has played for choirs, bands, solo singers and solo instrumentalists throughout the state, is a member of the New Mexico Music Educators' Association (NMMEA) and the National Association of Music Education. The groups do volunteer work throughout the state that benefits educators and public school music programs.
The second runner up for three separate NMMEA state piano competitions chose to stay in his hometown for now because he has a "love for the people here.
"I eventually would like to be a choir director in a much larger school district or at a performing arts facility," he continued. "Each and every day I have a goal to be a better educator than I was the day before. I ultimately just want my students to succeed and grow to love music the way I do."ogran is equally as great.
