Amy Swietlik
Educator, Ethnomusicologist, Musician
Amy Swietlik recently relocated to the Boston, Massachusetts area and is currently teaching general music classes for 6th through 10th grade students at an International School. Her curriculum focuses on world music, STEM+Music and the science of sound, digital music production, and more.
She spent 2015-2020 teaching general music and band at a Title 1 elementary school in the Osborn School District in Phoenix, Arizona. She was also a TAP Mentor teacher on her campus and part of her school administrative leadership team.
She regularly leads professional development and has had the opportunity to present at various conferences, including the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, the Arizona Music Educators Association Conference, and the International Society for Music Education Community Music Activity Conference.
Amy was chosen for the Osborn School District "You Make A Difference Award" in May 2019. Osborn School District was the recipient of the 2017 Governor's Arts Award for Arts Excellence in Education | Organization.
Amy holds a Master of Art Degree in Ethnomusicology and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Arizona State University. Her research interests include music education in low-income neighborhoods, community music projects, culturally responsive teaching, mindfulness in the classroom, restorative justice, and trauma-informed classrooms.
In 2014, Amy was the recipient of a U.S. Student Fulbright Award to Recife, Brazil. Amy researched community music education projects around the city. About her Fulbright Project:
"Music Education and Social Change in Recife, Brazil"
Amy Swietlik received a U.S. Student Fulbright Award to study community music education projects in Recife, Brazil. Recife is a large city in the northeast of Brazil with a notoriously violent history. Through a recent growth in music education programs, low-income communities in Recife have been able to drastically change the negative image of their neighborhoods and provide safer and more beneficial opportunities for at-risk youth. She worked with a classically-oriented youth orchestra (Orquestra Criança Cidadã), an Afro-Brazilian dance and percussion organization that has been around for decades (Pé no Chão), and a favela journalism project aimed at documenting positive perspectives of their neighborhood through digital media and fostering peaceful competition between rival favelas through break dance and music (FavelaNews). Amy observed how the organizations function within their community, pedagogical and philosophical approaches to education, their means of funding and sustainability, and the positive impact that musical involvement has on the youth participants and their families. She plans to share the successes and experiences of the organizations in Recife in hopes of assisting other music education projects around the world to find inspiration and a basic foundation to achieve similar results.
