March 07, 2017
When Stephen Clickard, Ph.D., Chair of the Bloomsburg University Music Department, was named as the recipient of the inaugural Jack and Helen Evans Endowed Fellowship in the College of Liberal Arts, he immediately recognized the opportunity to execute a project that he had been planning for some time.
Dr. Clickard approached two students in the Bachelor of Arts: Audio Visual Recording Track to work with him on recording and producing a professional full-length album in the BU music studio of his little big band, The Clickard Consortium. Rebecca Dressler, a senior from Shamokin, PA, and Reed Lehman, a junior from Bloomsburg, PA, both jumped at the chance to get involved.
“The experience we gained throughout this process gave me a lot of confidence with my major and the choice that I made,” Dressler said. “I can really see myself doing this as a career and learned what it was like to actually work with clients.”
“It looked more like a mountain when we were first presented with the project,” Lehman added. “I was excited and nervous at the same time. But to know now that we produced 12 fully mixed tracks that will be released to the public just makes me want to get back in the studio and do more.”
To me, the endowed professorship is about supporting faculty’s commitment to students by reinvesting donor generosity in the creation of pivotal learning experiences. Bloomsburg faculty believe that students are our priority because this is, first and foremost, a teaching university.
I first heard about Bloomsburg University through a high school visit. Because I was in a work program and left high school early every day, I ended up missing all college admission visits to my school except for one—Bloomsburg. So I applied, and was accepted. I started college and took an introductory sociology course.
As part of an informal “breakfast club” during his time at Bloomsburg, Michael had conversations with faculty that shaped his life. Later, when he decided he wanted to make a gift to help students like him, he saw an opportunity to stretch his dollars and reach hundreds of students by investing in faculty.
