{"id":140961,"date":"2025-01-27T22:57:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T03:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/?p=140961"},"modified":"2025-01-27T22:58:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T03:58:43","slug":"mshsl-we-are-the-league-feature-series-meet-rachel-moldan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/mshsl-we-are-the-league-feature-series-meet-rachel-moldan\/","title":{"rendered":"MSHSL: We Are the League Feature Series: Meet Rachel Moldan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem Viewing?…CLICK HERE>>><\/a><\/p>\n

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Rachel Moldan is the longtime Band Director at Sleepy Eye Saint Mary’s High School. The native of Neenah, Wis., says her high school experiences helped shape her vision of wanting to inspire students to love and appreciate music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Editor’s Note<\/strong>: Welcome to\u00a0We Are the League,<\/em>\u00a0a feature series that recognizes the work, dedication and enthusiasm of individuals who are essential in making opportunities within the Minnesota State High School League a truly great experience for all. During this series, you will meet an incredible array of individuals, including student-participants, who will share their journeys through education-based activities. The League hopes you enjoy this recognition series.<\/p>\n

My high school journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    I grew up in a Wisconsin town called Neenah and attended high school at Fox Valley Lutheran in nearby Appleton.\u00a0 It was a bigger area with a lot of different opportunities.\u00a0Both of my parents were elementary teachers; my dad had an emphasis in music.\u00a0Our school had 600 or so students which meant we had two bands and three choirs.\u00a0That also meant that every activity was a competition.\u00a0You had to work hard to be a varsity player, or to lead on the student council.\u00a0My freshman year I was part of the band that was made up mostly of freshmen.\u00a0After that we could audition to be part of the Symphonic Band.\u00a0I spent the next three years in this band.\u00a0I think most of my passion for music came from my band director.\u00a0He was one of those teachers whom you just didn\u2019t want to disappoint.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t until my junior year that I really knew that this was something I wanted to continue for life. My three siblings also played an instrument and my older sister is also a band director in Wisconsin.\u00a0I went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where I earned my Bachelor’s of Music Degree in Instrumental Education.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Favorite high school memories<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    • I had so many musical opportunities growing up.\u00a0I was able to audition and be a part of the Fox Valley Youth Symphony.\u00a0This really pushed me to become a better clarinet player.\u00a0I made some really good friends through band and though I don\u2019t see them often, we still can pick up where we left off when we do meet.\u00a0We were lucky to have Lawrence University basically in our backyard and I had parents who believed in me and the arts enough to pay for private lessons.\u00a0I did participate in track and field my freshman year.\u00a0As fun as it was, I decided (or my parents through stern encouragement to practice) to devote more time to music. I was able to be a part of a summer marching program made up of students from nine different schools throughout Wisconsin.\u00a0 These are my best memories of high school.\u00a0We worked hard, having to do pushups in the middle of the road if someone messed up or misbehaved.\u00a0We went to so many places and saw things I wouldn\u2019t have had the opportunity to see.\u00a0We went on an eastern tour and I got to play at Niagara Falls and tour Boston.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Why I enjoy being involved with high school activities<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      • These are the experiences that helped shape me and make me want to help students to have a love and appreciation of music.\u00a0I think back to my friendships created and pride in what we accomplished and hope that I can inspire students this way too.\u00a0I loved going to basketball games with my friends and playing in the pep band for the fans.\u00a0These are years and opportunities you never get back.\u00a0High school was, for me, a time to explore, try new things, and be OK with it if I failed or didn\u2019t like it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Problem Viewing?…CLICK HERE>>>   Rachel Moldan is the longtime Band Director at Sleepy Eye Saint Mary’s High School. The native of Neenah, Wis., says her high school experiences helped shape her vision of wanting to inspire students to love and appreciate music. Editor’s Note: Welcome to\u00a0We Are the League,\u00a0a feature series that recognizes the work, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2030-02-27 22:53:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140963,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140961\/revisions\/140963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}