provide a tool that can be used by public 
health officials.” 

DWSD, GLWA and MSU have been at the 
forefront of U.S. wastewater utilities using the 
sewer system to help identify virus outbreaks. 

“The expansion of the partnership gives us 
targeted information that is critical in our 
battle against COVID-19,” says Denise Fair, City 
of Detroit Chief Public Health Officer. “The 
expanded reach of this study allows us to

pinpoint neighborhoods and zip codes where 
COVID-19 is trending upward, and we can use 
this information to reach out to residents and 
businesses in those areas to reinforce our 
messaging with regard to testing, quarantine 
protocols, contact tracing and even 
assistance for businesses that need help in 
developing a plan to operate while keeping 
their employees safe during this pandemic.”

The approach that Xagoraraki and the team 
are using is focused on community 

MSU tests Detroit-area wastewater for early COVID-19 detection - continued from page 1

From its headquarters on Woodward Avenue 
in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood, MSU’s 
Community Music School-Detroit has been 
offering innovative music programming to 
Detroiters of all ages since 2009.

Through its existence alone, the CMS-D has 
helped to dismantle some of the economic 
barriers that stand in the way of high-quality 
music education. But a new program called 
Music Empowers, launched by CMS-D in 2020 
and funded by a grant from the Community 
Foundation for Southeast Michigan, has 
taken the school’s commitment to equity in 
music education a step further. 

Under the leadership of Juliet Hess, associate 
professor of music education at MSU, Music 
Empowers is providing the tools and training 
to help all CMS-D faculty members build 
social justice into their music curriculum.

A window and mirror
Historically, music curriculum has focused 
almost exclusively on the musical styles and 
achievements of only white American or 
Western European men, and few have 
bothered to ask whether any of it was 
actually meaningful or relatable 
to the students learning it.

Hess has experienced this 
herself. “I know that when I 
was a young child, I was 
subject to a Christocentric 
curriculum that didn’t 
acknowledge my 
Judaism,” she says. 
“At that time, it 
would have made 
a significant 
difference for me 
to see myself 
included in the 
curriculum.”

Now, as an educator, she sees the issue 
through the lens of the well-known relational 
scholar Emily Style, who said that curriculum 
should be “both a window and a mirror” for 
students. Curriculum should both reflect 
students’ realities back to them to affirm 
them and also provide a window into the 
realities of others.

To achieve that, Music Empowers calls for 
something researchers have coined culturally 
responsive teaching, which gives students 
“opportunities to engage with music in ways 
that are congruent with their own lived 
cultural experiences with music.” In the 
context of CMS-D, it will help music students 
see a place for themselves in the world of 
music, as both a form of self-expression and a 
way of understanding others.

Social justice: not just a buzzword
So, what does “socially just” music curriculum 
look—and sound—like? It’s flexible. It 
incorporates the tastes and interests of the 
students in the class, as well as musical 
genres and practices that might be an 
important part of their culture.

In some cases, that does include the music of 
white American and Western European men. 
But it might also include the music of various 

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: 
Music of the people, for the people, in Detroit

religious or cultural traditions: jazz, 
Motown, R&B, hip-hop, drum circles or 
mariachi, and in every lesson about every 
genre, it acknowledges and makes space 
for musicians and music aficionados of all 
shapes, sizes, colors, genders and religions.

Hess envisions how this approach would 
apply to the Jewish community.

“In thinking about the Jewish community…
it would mean that Jewish students would 
see their experiences reflected in 
classroom materials and activities, which 
would also provide students outside the 
Jewish community with an opportunity to 
engage with the experiences of their 
Jewish peers.”

And the same could be said for any student 
who has previously felt “othered” by 
curriculum. That’s what social justice is, 
after all: the idea that no person should be 
oppressed or cast aside by the system on 
the basis of any aspect of their identity. 

And while music, alone, isn’t going to fix 
a world’s worth of social justice issues,
it is a great place to start teaching people 
how to see and be seen, and to listen and 
be heard.

Music programming for parents and caregivers 
with children under age six.

composite sampling and analysis. It is a 
wastewater-based epidemiology method 
directly applicable to urban metropolitan 
areas with centralized wastewater 
collection.

“Our approach has the potential to provide 
warnings earlier than traditional systems 
focused on clinical diagnostics—rapid or 
not—which are inherently limited to an 
after analysis of an outbreak,” says 
Xagoraraki. 

actually meaningful or relatable 

to the students learning it.

Hess has experienced this 
herself. “I know that when I 
was a young child, I was 

subject to a Christocentric 

curriculum that didn’t 

acknowledge my 
Judaism,” she says. 
“At that time, it 

would have made 
a significant 
difference for me 

to see myself 

included in the 
curriculum.”

Catch up on the latest from MSU
msutoday.msu.edu

Explore giving opportunities
givingto.msu.edu

More about alumni participation 
alumni.msu.edu

Music programming for parents and caregivers 
with children under age six.

Taylor Spurgeon-Hess (’21, Eli Broad College of 
Business): “MSU doesn’t just have a Jewish community; it 
has a Jewish community with character. MSU as a whole has 
been a place that accepted all parts of me from day one. 
‘Spartans Will’ is not just a slogan…it is a mindset shared by 
the students and staff. The sense of togetherness and 
camaraderie embodied by MSU’s community gave me room 
to share who I was without fear of judgment. This fall, I felt 
lost. My sense of community had been weakened when 
classes went online. MSU Hillel took me in and gave me a 
home away from home. The staff members and other 
students brightened my day and proved that even a 
pandemic can’t break the spirit of MSU.”

Sloane Krugel (’23, Lyman Briggs College): “There are 
many Jewish students who attend Michigan State, so you 
never feel alone. MSU Hillel has played a huge role in my 
student experience—as soon as I arrived, they delivered a 
welcome bag to my dorm room, and provided events for 
Jewish students to meet each other and get to know the 
Hillel staff. They host shabbat dinners every Friday so 
students can have a “home-cooked meal,” and on top of all 
of this, their building is open most days of the week so 
students can have a quiet space to study. Especially now, 
during COVID-19, Hillel has provided me and other students 
with shabbat-to-go meals, Sunday brunches and many 
other resources to help us succeed.”

Jordan Robinson (’22, College of Social Science): “MSU 
allows students to be Jewish in a multitude of different 
capacities, and the university’s administration and 
undergraduate student government continuously work with 
the Jewish Student Union to ensure that Jewish students 
feel safe, welcome and included on campus. MSU Hillel, 
specifically, goes out of their way to get to know you on an 
individual level, support you on campus and help you get 
what you want out of your MSU experience. Hillel allowed 
me to get real world experience in my desired career 
path—Jewish nonprofit work—and exposed me to people 
and organizations that will strengthen me as both a person 
and a Jew.”

LEARN MORE about MSU Hillel at msuhillel.org

Student perspectives on Jewish life at MSU - continued from page 1

MARK YOUR CALENDAR 

MARCH 16, 2021 – 
GIVE GREEN DAY: 

Join Spartans from around 
the world in showing support 
for students at MSU on 
Give Green Day! For more 
information, watch our 
social channels or visit
givingday.msu.edu 

Catch up on the latest from MSU
msutoday.msu.edu

Explore giving opportunities
givingto.msu.edu

More about alumni participation 
alumni.msu.edu

