Music Education alumni Jay DeDon ’14, pictured below left, and Nathan Drawdy ’10, pictured right, have been appointed as new music teachers in Plant City, Fla. Both were raised in Plant City, graduated from Plant City High School, and then pursued music education at Stetson University. Both have chosen to move back to their home town and build up the lives of their students and their hometown community through music education.

Drawdy has been hired as the Director of Choral Activities at Plant City High School. During his time at Stetson, Drawdy became one of the founding members of Stetson’s men’s a capella choir “Hat Trick.” Upon graduating in 2010, Nathan has spent the past four years teaching choir at Barrington Middle School in Tampa, Fla. His passions are voice, guitar, and Christian worship music.

DeDon has been hired as the new Director of Bands at Marshall Middle School which feeds all of its students directly to Plant City High School. During his time at Stetson, DeDon was also a member of “Hat Trick.” He is an alumnus of Stetson’s Bonner Program in which he spent over 600 hours volunteering with Southwestern Middle School’s Band Program. During his four years at Stetson, he served in an apprenticeship with Stetson alumnus Joseph Powell ’10. In his senior year DeDon created the CNAfME Middle School Honors Chamber Winds Festival, which is an all day honor band that provides a new type of performance opportunity for underprivileged middle school band students, taught by Stetson music education students. He is passionate about ending poverty through education.

Marshall Middle School is a Title I/Renaissance school with 80 percent economically disadvantaged students. “The school is down the street from the house I grew up in and serves the disadvantaged population that surrounded my childhood,” said DeDon. He is most excited to create an academically structured arts curriculum that provides an opportunity for all students to succeed and grow.

Together the two alumni plan to change the city as a whole. They want to serve the community through performance, inspire academic pursuit and tag team performances to create a united Plant City that has a foundation in a love for the arts and a determination to succeed.