Jessie Mersinger remembers her high school band days as “life changing.”
“I had a beautiful experience,” says Mersinger, a 2018 Rutgers graduate who earned a doctoral degree in French horn from Mason Gross School of the Arts. “I had a great band director, who I still talk to to this day, and I still hang out with my friends who I sat next to. It was such a special thing, and I feel like every kid deserves that.”
Mersinger is now working to create that same experience for her students at New Brunswick High School (NBHS), where she is the director of instrumental music and oversees the marching band as well as concert band, jazz band, and orchestra.
Under her leadership, the NBHS marching band, the Marching Zebras, has been steadily growing over the past two years after more than two decades of inactivity due to a series of budget cuts and changes in directors.
Around 50 students now participate in the band, and the larger music program in New Brunswick Public Schools is getting a boost thanks to a partnership with the Mason Gross music department, which provides an opportunity for Rutgers students to coach and instruct in community classrooms.
Read more at Rutgers Today.
Image: Jessie Mersinger (third from the right), a Rutgers graduate, is rebuilding the marching band program at New Brunswick High School with support from the Marching Scarlet Knights including Assistant Director Julia Baumanis (second from right) and Director Todd Nichols (right). Photo by Mel Evans/Rutgers University