Megan Waterhouse
Class of 2011
Fairhaven, VT
Major: Jazz/Contemporary Music Performance
Favorite weekend activity: Hiking, kayaking, cooking, listening to music
Career Plans: Graduate school, teaching music
“At JSC you get the same caliber of music education that you would at a big conservatory, but you also get a close, personal relationship with your teachers.”
As a high school senior in Fairhaven, VT, Megan Waterhouse was able to get college credits at Johnson State College for her advanced music classes. So JSC was on her list of choices for college. “The credits I had already earned were definitely an incentive to come here,” she says, “but when I actually came to campus... I just fell in love with it.”
The saxophonist, who in spring 2010 won the Music Department Award for the second year in a row, couldn't have made a better choice, she thinks. “At JSC you get the same caliber of music education that you would at a big conservatory, but you also get a close personal relationship with your teachers.” One example of this is the attention she got from Professor Steve Blair during her sophomore year, when she was focusing on ear training and music theory. “Steve really went the extra mile for me to help me learn the foundations. And once I mastered what he gave me, he’d give me more. He really encouraged me to absorb as much as I could both in class, and giving me suggestions of things to listen to and learn about outside of the class too.”
Part of Megan’s education involves performance, and JSC gives her many opportunities to perform. “I’m involved with the Jazz Ensemble, Afro-Cuban Ensemble, and the Funk Fusion Ensemble.” She also performs in the summers with her own band back at home.
Megan also shares her talent and passion for music with her fellow students by working as a music theory and ear training tutor and by helping set up sound production for events in the performance space in the Stearns Student Center. She also works as a resident assistant in the college campus housing.
In the fall of 2010, Megan is going to follow her passion for jazz to one of its sources — New Orleans — as part of the National Student Exchange Program. And when she returns to Johnson in the spring, she’ll bring what she learned back to the college and the stage here.