Trumpet Professor
Stephen Dunn, Northern Arizona University
The Peoria School District has teamed up with Pursue the Passion to send over 600 students into the community to do interviews with professionals who have jobs the students are interested in. Below is an interview Kimberly Gravening did with Stephen Dunn, a trumpet professor at Northern Arizona University.
“How would you describe your job?”
Dr. Dunn explained both enjoyable because you get to play and learn as you go. You always learn as you play of course. Also, he said it was very time consuming. Being a trumpet professor truly takes much time on yourself, your family, and your students.
“What is the most challenging part of your job?”
The challenging parts of his job he explained were how to balance teaching with other activities. With so much responsibility and work that is completely understandable, but being able to figure out how to balance them is key. Also, he explained that you see a lot of students; it’s hard to split your time up equally with every student and get to know them well when you have such a small amount of time.
“What do you enjoy most about your job?”
The two things he loves of course, music and his students. Being a trumpet professor you get to deal with the students who are just as interested as you are and share that love for music.
“How much of your life is devoted to work?”
A round about percentage of how much time he said was probably around 70% of his life.
“What kind of person is suited for this job? What kind of characteristics and personality do they have?”
The kind of person suited for this job he explained would be someone who enjoys working with people and music and share that compassion for understanding. They need to stick to it, do years of practice. Some characteristics would be to work hard, be interested, learning, all while dealing with everything else going on in the world.
“Where were you at my age and where did you think you were going to go in your career?”
Dr. Dunn word by word told me, “right here”. He truly set his goals high and stuck with them and became very successful. He truly is a good example for others.
“If you could tell yourself one piece of advice at my age, what would you say?”
“Take every musical opportunity you have!”
THERE ARE 3 RESPONSES TO THIS INTERVIEW
Steve Says:
October 10th, 2008
Very well done. It’s nice to have students do these interviews as well as PTP staff. I bet the students learn so much in the process. It’s a great experience for them. Great job.
Music to My Ears « Jobing Foundation Says:
October 10th, 2008
[…] To read Kimberly’s interview with Professor Steven Dunn, visit http://www.pursuethepassion.com/interviews/2008/10/09/my-interview-with-the-trumpet-professor/. […]
Sean Says:
November 1st, 2008
Ha, I just found this. Kim is my section leader at Peoria High
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