NAfME‘s Chapter of Excellence Recognition programme was developed as an incentive to provide the best music education programmes and professional development schemes, to broaden their recruitment efforts and service programmes.
It is judged over the period of one calendar year and winners are recognised during an online event in the early autumn. With over 60,000 members across the States, NAfME is one of the world’s largest arts education organisations and the only one in America covering all aspects of music education, so these honours are highly prized.
The seven chapters receiving Chapter of Excellence Recognition for the 2020–2021 school year are:
- Professional Development: University of Lynchburg, Lynchburg, Virginia
- Professional Development: Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
- Professional Development: Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois; and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (joint project)
- Service: DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
- Service: Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania
- Service: Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Five NAfME Collegiate members were also recognized with Professional Achievement Awards. The purpose of the Professional Achievement Award is to recognize individual collegiate members for their commitment and dedication to NAfME and music education. This recognition is given to collegiate members who have served their chapters in an exemplary manner.
Professional Achievement Award recipients for 2020–2021 are:
- Maggie Ward – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
- Morgan Beaton – Nazareth College School of Music, Rochester, New York
- Kasey Julian – Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
- Matthew Rees – Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania
- AJ Gonzales – San José State University, San José, California
