Personal Legacy Statement

My name is McKenna Lange and I am a Senior at LHS. I am interning under the direction and
leadership of Le Roy Music Teacher, Bridgette Wells.  Mrs. Wells teaches band for grades 6-12,
chorus for 7-12, and so much more. I intern with her during my 6th hour when she teaches Music
Therapy with the LIFE program for half of the class. The other half is spent with the Jr. High band
during 1st and 3rd quarter, while the 2nd and 4th quarters are spent with Jr. High chorus. Interning
with Mrs. Wells has taught me a lot. One of the big things I have been learning is how to interact with
kids with special needs. I already had some knowledge on it as I have two siblings at home with
Autism. I have learned about finding videos that work with them, for example, we played a game
where a song was played and they chose one of their cards (they had three emotion cards sitting in
front of them) that fit along with how the song made them feel. Some songs everybody agreed, but
most songs they had mixed reactions.  

When we were introduced to band in 5th grade I thought it was the coolest thing ever. All the
instruments were shiny and they made funny noises. I remember picking clarinet because it was the
prettiest and it was the easiest to make a noise on. Now, seven years later, I can play three types of
clarinets, two types of recorders, and a couple others. I cannot imagine my life without the music
department. It is such a big part of my life and I plan to stay in music past High School. I want to
Major in Music Therapy and Minor in some kind of band-related field. I want to go into music therapy
because I had originally planned on going into a psychology field after my brother went to a mental
hospital. Watching him go through that and going through the other side of things, I realized I
wanted to help people that were going through the things he was going through and more.
However, if I went into only psychology, I would lose music and music is not something I want to give
up.