Courses

ICE-125 The Mind: The Creative Entrepreneur Mindset illuminates the harmonious intersection of artistry and entrepreneurship. This course ventures beyond traditional entrepreneurial principles, immersing students into a realm where creativity isn't just an advantage, but the very essence of innovative business endeavors. It underscores an artist’s core abilities—such as improvisation, listening, collaborating, and experimenting—as invaluable tools in the entrepreneurial arsenal. Through a blend of theoretical exploration and experiential learning, students will understand how to seamlessly weave artistic skills into the fabric of business strategy and innovation. By the course's end, students will not only appreciate the parallels between the worlds of art and business but will also be adept at harnessing their unique artistic talents to navigate and thrive in the entrepreneurial landscape.

ICE-225 The Blueprint: Foundations of Entrepreneurship invites students into the vibrant world of entrepreneurial thinking and practice. This course lays the foundation for understanding the intricacies of launching and operating successful startups, delving deep into essential business vocabulary, frameworks, and strategic theories. With an emphasis on real-world application, students will gain insights into the theoretical aspects and learn to craft foundational business plans using the Business Model Canvas. By course's end, students will be well-versed in the language and strategies of the entrepreneurial landscape and poised to transform their future creative ideas into tangible business ventures. 

ICE-345 The Startup Lab 1 immerses students in the early stages of entrepreneurial venture creation. This course emphasizes ideation, concept development, and prototyping, with the objective of turning abstract ideas into something tangible. Students will learn to harness creativity through ideation exercises, assess feasibility and market desirability, and develop a low-fidelity prototype or MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The class will culminate in an informal presentation where students share their concepts and receive peer feedback, laying the groundwork for developing a strategy and professional pitching in the subsequent course, ICE-445 The Startup Lab 2.

This course examines mind-body disciplines and their impact on fostering wellness in community spaces. It focuses on how musicians, artists, and community leaders can apply mindfulness, positive psychology, and somatic techniques to cultivate sustainable, inclusive, and connected communities. Through experiential learning, reflective activities, and creative applications, students will gain practical tools to integrate wellness into both their personal lives and community settings. The course emphasizes the connection between personal wellbeing and community engagement, encouraging students to align their practices with creativity, connection, and purpose.

This course explores the intersection of music, sound, climate change, and environmental justice. Drawing on acoustic ecology, soundscape studies, cultural preservation, and historical perspectives on environmental activism, students will examine how sound can communicate the impacts of climate change and inspire action, while emphasizing the documentation of stories, soundscapes, and narratives of those displaced by environmental crises. The course addresses how climate change disproportionately affects marginalized communities, and investigates the role of music in advocating for environmental justice and fostering community resilience. Studying projects by musicians, cultural custodians, and researchers involved in the connection between music and environment, students will learn how humans record, disseminate, and promote understanding of different aspects of the environment. Through fieldwork, historical readings, and project-based learning, students will design sound-based interventions that engage with environmental movements and/or highlight narratives of communities facing environmental displacement and migration, emphasizing ethical collaboration and preserving cultural legacies. 

A hands-on course designed to provide practical skills for incorporating technology into the practice of music therapy. Topics will include MIDI, digital sound, adaptive technology, music composition/performance software, and the internet. Students will use technology to develop original music activities and present them to the class.

Through a combination of literature review, field research, reflective writing, and regular meetings with an on-site supervisor, students will deepen their understanding of professional arts in public health practice. Course requirements will include a minimum of 15 hours of supervised practicum experience in a public health setting with an established community partner (healthcare, forensics, residential settings, community centers, etc.).

Arts-based health research applies the scientific method to obtain a better understanding of the arts’ effects on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. This course is an introductory exploration of purpose and methods of various research designs within the arts and health landscape. Emphases will be placed on demonstrating ability to understand, interpret, evaluate and apply research; navigate research databases, and the role of research in product/program development.

This course is an overview of music therapy theory, research, and clinical practice in working with older adults to maintain quality of life throughout the aging process. Emphases will be placed on the role of music-based experiences across domains of functioning, from wellness to disease management. This includes examining the impact of music therapy methods within the treatment and management of diseases and disorders prevalent throughout the aging process. 

This course will provide a comprehensive overview of the role of music in bereavement. Theories of grief, cultural impacts on grief and the unique role music experiences can have on grief will be covered. Emphasis will be placed on current research practices and experiential learning for students to gain individual and community insights. This course is open to music therapy and non-music therapy majors.

This course explores the vital connections between music, health, and the lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Through an examination of historical and contemporary musical traditions grounded in healing justice, we investigate how music can serve as a tool for holistic wellbeing, community cohesion, and resilience. Case study analysis, experiential projects, and arts-based reflection are used to highlight the role of music in community health initiatives, therapeutic settings, and social justice movements, bridging theory and praxis. By engaging in multimodal learning pathways, students will gain a deeper understanding of the impact of systemic oppression on health disparities as well as music's power to promote wellness and social change within BIPOC communities and beyond. Students are empowered to design, integrate, and advocate for culturally sustaining health practices in a variety of roles and settings.

Innovative solutions require cross-disciplinary approaches. This course empowers students of all backgrounds to confront contemporary health challenges through curiosity, creativity, and strategy. Using the Impact Thinking Model, this course will provide participants with a well-rounded understanding of the fundamentals of clinical problem-solving to human-centered product design within the music and health space. Students will gain foundational knowledge, skills necessary to apply that knowledge to solutions in a practical context, and interface with leading experts within the music and health ecosystem.