Eastern received a phone call to take part in changing the curriculum of a local area school.

Paul Melvin, director for the department of music, received a phone call from Superintendent Steve Launius of Beecher City. Launius was beginning his first year as superintendent for the school, when he realized something was missing.

Beecher City Junior/Senior High School was missing their music program. This program had been absent for 13 years, since 1994. Launius also realized he did not have the financial means to bring back the music program.

“Music education, to me, is the cornerstone of education,” Launius said.

Eastern was the first and only school contacted by Launius. Eastern’s close proximity to the school made it a prime choice.

Melvin’s next step was to take a group from the music department to visit the school and talk to them and figure out exactly how it would work.

“It wasn’t long before we decided upon a privately sponsored assistantship,” Melvin said.

The private assistantship means the graduate student is employed through Eastern, thereby answering directly to Eastern faculty.

The student will receive a tuition waiver through Eastern and a monthly stipend. The stipend will be provided through donations from the Effingham Community Foundation and Dean Samuel and the Samuel Family Foundation.

Eastern music department faculty will watch over the graduate student. The faculty will also be getting feedback from the school in Beecher City, Melvin said.

The search for a graduate student is still in process. The application can be found online through Eastern’s music department Web site. Melvin is in charge of the selection process. He needs someone that is certified to teach in Illinois or a comparable teaching certificate in another state.

“I’m looking for someone that can hit the ground running, especially seeing as this is such an important project,” Melvin said.

The student would be responsible for instructing the students at the Junior/Senior High School in its new choral department. The school hopes to soon expand their new music program to include instrument instruction at the elementary level, which already includes a general music program.

The new choral department will use a Yamaha Clavinova Digital Piano, which costs $5,200. The Beecher City school board will pay for half of it, with fundraising by organizations and individuals in the community covering the other half of it.

“It took everybody to make it all go together,” Launius said.

Melvin is only aware of one other such partnership between a university and a school, and is very excited to be a part of it.

“The opportunity to help people in this way is the main reason I got into this career in the first place,” Melvin said.

The official deadline for the decision about the graduate student is due on August 1. Melvin would like to have the decision made before then, if possible.