IHS Needs Community. Can You Help?

    Do you like going to school? I once heard an IHS student say, “If school was like this, I’d actually want to go.” Let me share with you what that is.

    CUMEP stands for Community Unity Music Education Program, but those words cannot

capture the experience. CUMEP is run by Dr. Nia Nunn, and she is like no other human I have ever met. Picture a hug on your saddest day, that feeling of warmth and understanding, that is who Dr. Nunn is. Her dad, along with others, founded CUMEP over two decades ago as a way to educate students during the summer.

    This year was my first time going to CUMEP. A quick history about me—I am a nonspeaker with autism, and I had no meaningful way to communicate until two years ago. I use a

letterboard to spell out my thoughts. Dr. Nunn came to Disability Justice Club during Universal Lunch and saw me using the letterboard to discuss Disability Visibility, a book by Alice Wong.

    Dr. Nunn is a Professor at Ithaca College and gave us all a copy. Dr. Nunn saw me as a human, started building a community around me, and invited me to CUMEP. She remarks, “When people feel known, valued, loved, and connected to the learning environment and the people around them, they are more willing to take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, and imagine what is possible. My purpose and passion, as an educator and leader, is to create communities where people can exercise their brilliance and engage in a kind of learning that affirms their humanity.”

    Let me describe how CUMEP starts! Feel the energy change already? We start with a

chant of “Are you ready? Are you ready?” and we shout back “We’re ready! We’re ready!” Then it is like whitewater rafting down a river of joy and happiness. We sing so many great songs, such as “Ain’t Nobody Going to Break My Spirit,” “Believe in Yourself,” and “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers. All this music is important because it brings us together as a community of people who want to share the day together and have fun.

    Merriam-Webster defines community as “a group of people who live in the same place,

share the same interests, or have similar backgrounds.” To me, it also means a feeling of sharing and caring for one another. 

    Do we have a community at IHS? I invited our principal, Caren Arnold, to come to CUMEP to participate in the morning music and community gathering so she could maybe get ideas for building community at IHS. “Building community at IHS is incredibly important to me, and I think our students have already shown us some of the best ways to do it,” says Arnold. What is missing at IHS? We have a real opportunity to create something special when the school day is extended. What can we create as an entire school community so that everyone wants to come to school everyday?