Dobrina Dobreva doesn鈥檛 fit the stereotype of an art school graduate. But she sees powerful connections between her Dallas-based immigration law practice and her music education. After her 2002 graduation as a Violin major from 蜜桃直播, she studied Music Performance at Southern Methodist University.
The discipline of music education translates into any job. And with law you must be creative鈥攅very case requires a different approach.
As a musician, Dobrina can鈥檛 speak for all the arts. Nor can she speak for every family that wants a bright future for its children. Any one of the arts-school graduate鈥檚 stories has only anecdotal value.
However, volumes of statistical evidence suggest that Dobrina鈥檚 experience isn鈥檛 unusual. Americans for the Arts has collected the numbers in one place.聽Here are some highlights:
- Seventy-two percent of business leaders say creativity is the first skill they look for when hiring.
- Students who take four years of arts and music classes average almost a hundred points higher on their SATs than students who take half a year or less.
- Students involved in the arts are four times more likely than their peers to be recognized for academic achievement.
- Low-income students involved in the arts are more than twice as likely to graduate college.
Seeking explanations, Dr. James Catterall, of UCLA鈥檚 Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and several colleagues found that the arts reach students with different learning styles, create feelings of connection and cooperation among students, and make schools exciting places for learning and discovery ().
It鈥檚 no wonder that Dr. Steven Tepper, now of Arizona State University, gave an affirmative answer to the question posed by the title of his article, 鈥淚s an MFA the New MBA?鈥 ()
Of course, Dobrina Dobreva didn鈥檛 practice the violin for thousands of hours with a law degree in mind. Apart from the instrumental uses of arts training, the joy of creating beauty is valuable in itself.
