Jaclyn Hartenberger becomes 12th HHSOM Lilly Teaching Fellow

For the second consecutive year and 12th year overall, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music was represented at the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning’s (CTL) Lilly Teaching Fellows opening retreat.

Held at Unicoi State Park and Lodge in Helen, the retreat was the first part of the Lilly Teaching Fellows program for the 2015-2017 class, which includes Jaclyn Hartenberger, School of Music assistant professor and director of the UGA Wind Symphony.

Each spring semester, the CTL Lilly Teaching Fellows program selects 10 tenure-track assistant professors who are recent recipients of a Ph.D. or terminal degree in their discipline or profession, who are in their first, second, or third year at the University and who demonstrate particular acumen and passion as both researchers and instructors.

Part of Hartenberger’s selection involved writing a letter explaining her desire to join the program and the focus of her work. Hartenberger wrote on the importance of live music, how “live music includes everyone and can only exist because of everyone in [the] room.”

“Rehearsals [of the UGA Wind Symphony] turn into a lab where students collaborate to create a work of art that only lives because of their work together,” wrote Hartenberger.

That spirit of collaboration was at the core of the Lilly Teaching Fellows opening retreat, where the Fellows met each other and discussed the work they had done and would set out to do within the program.

“Even this early in the program, it is clear that the selection committee did a superb job,” said Jean Martin-Williams, Lilly Teaching Fellows program director and professor of horn at the School of Music. “The 2015-2017 Fellows are a particularly thoughtful and vibrant group.”

The program strives to, over a two-year period, improve the teaching abilities of promising young professors, expose those educators to the full scope of resources available at UGA, create a support system among the Fellows and provide the means for the Fellows to strengthen their department and broader academic community.

But the real value of the program, according to Martin-Williams, comes from the Fellows themselves.

“The cohort is the backbone of the program,” said Martin-Williams. “Most former Lilly Fellows on campus cite the cohort as the biggest asset of the program.  Long after the program is over, the groups stay in touch.”

“I feel like I've already taken so much away from this experience and the biggest is the fact that we need to go outside of our comfort zones,” said Hartenberger. “It's always easier to be around the people that understand what we do, but there are so many people that can enrich our lives if we just visit another building on this campus and start meeting the people in their halls.”

Hartenberger is the latest in a long line of School of Music participants in the Lilly Teaching Fellows program: Rebecca Simpson-Litke, assistant professor of music theory (2014-2016); Amy Pollard, associate professor of bassoon (2012-2014); Jean Kidula, professor of ethnomusicology (2004-2006); Adrian Childs, associate professor of composition & music theory (2002-2004); Roy Legette, associate professor of music education (2000-2002); Jean Martin-Williams (1992-1993); and David Haas; professor of musicology (1991-1992).

Photo: Jaclyn Hartenberger (second from right) stands with the other 2015-2017 Lilly Teaching Fellows at their opening retreat at Unicoi State Park and Lodge in Helen, Ga.