Reposted from The Weekly
Most people only see the UW marching band’s final product: the stellar half-time show it presents to adoring Badger fans. Behind the scenes, UW Marching Band administrative coordinator Shannon Schaefer is the unsung hero of the operation.
Schaefer’s job requires her to do a variety of tasks, such as organizing and planning the marching band’s trips to other campuses, creating press books for each game, and transcribing music and formation charts.
“Mike (Leckrone) is very old-school and likes to write everything out by hand, so I take his formation charts, drill instructions and music and type them out to be distributed to each of the band members for practice,” says Schaefer.
Her work doesn’t stop after football season ends, though. Schaefer also assists in organizing the Varsity Band performance that happens each spring. She says her Communications undergraduate degree from UW-Milwaukee has proved to be useful in her day-to-day work as the UW Marching Band Administrative Coordinator.
Additionally, Schaefer’s position requires her to work closely with undergraduate band members working in the music department. As a supervisor to some of the students, Schaefer feels it’s important to delegate tasks but also...
The tragedy that has unfolded in Connecticut is horrendous. As social workers and social workers-at-heart, we have many immediate reactions to it, including profound sadness and empathy for the victims and their families, foresight about the short and longer-term impact of this traumatic event on those directly and indirectly affected, and urgent thoughts about the kinds of policies and practices needed to combat these types of tragedies. 
