by Rachel Coleman
LIBERAL, Kan. — Claire Thompson started college with the goal of becoming a band director — preferably at a high school. Now, after 12 years teaching elementary school music students, she is ready to return to her first love and level up.
Thompson was hired as the new Seward County Community College instrumental music instructor in June. Though the campus is relatively quiet over the summer months, she has settled into her office, checked out the instrument inventory and teaching space, and is eager for the new semester to begin.
“I’m so excited, and I’m looking forward to all of it, especially the goal of reviving a pep band for the SCCC Saints,” she said. “I know first year teaching is a lot of trial and error, but my main focus is to try to spark that new interest in music here at the college.”
Thompson envisions a pep band that can ramp up excitement at Saints sporting events, and partner with local and area high school bands. There’s nothing quite like the experience of playing in that environment, she said: “I was a huge pep band kid. That sense of community is amazing, the connection to the athletes and the crowd … students and the people in town add an extra layer of excitement to the music itself.”
Thompson’s love of music and the desire to share it has not changed since those early days as a flute-player in middle school, high school, and college. “I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” Thompson said. “Growing up, I would force my younger sister to play school with me, and then in middle school I had an incredible band director. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do!’’’
After she completed undergraduate and master’s degrees at Michigan State University, Thompson was ready to find a classroom. But at that time, the job market in her home state of Michigan was not promising. Thompson was determined to put her degree to work.
“I knew I needed a job, but I didn’t want to work at JC Penney or as a substitute teacher,” she recalled. “When one of my friends reached out to say she’d landed a teaching job at McDermott Elementary School in Liberal, Kansas, and there were more openings, I thought, ‘why not?’’ Thompson accepted an offer sight unseen.
“It was a huge shock” she remembers, driving 17 hours to the wide open spaces of Southwest Kansas. But her tiny students more than made up for the changes in the landscape. “The job at USD 480 was my first and only position, and I enjoyed it and the students so much. It’s been rewarding all these years. Oddly, it gave me a little bit of kind of a head start,” she said. “Some of my earliest students are now old enough to enroll in college.”
Thompson is recruiting now for the Saints Pep Band. A limited number of book scholarships (covering the cost of textbooks for all classes) are available. Students can set up a meeting by emailing claire.thompson@sccc.edu. Enrollment for fall semester is open, with classes scheduled to begin Aug. 21.
