Faculty member Drew X. Coles (Ed.D ‘19), a lecturer in the Music and Music Education program and director of the hybrid M.A., knows how to make waves. With more than 1,000 musical performances under his belt, he’s solidified himself as a beloved fixture on campus and in TC corners of the internet with his heartfelt renditions of “Sir Duke” and “Lean on Me” alongside students and alums. And while Coles’s dedication to mentoring the next generation of musicians and scholars is apparent in his many endeavors, his impact is perhaps most keenly felt by the students who participate in his independent study class.
Each year, Coles welcomes a new cohort of students interested in taking their scholarship to the next level, and ushers them through the complex and often lengthy path to publication. A TC alum and former Student Senate president, Coles is keenly aware of the cost of a graduate education which influences his approach to mentorship. “I have to make good on the value to the students who come into this program,” says Coles who ultimately aims to create more confident scholars and more attractive doctoral applicants through research support and resource sharing.
Mentorship is an “opportunity to delve into what the student knows, but maybe can't articulate in a research-oriented way,” Coles says. “I like to look into what is most motivating to the students with the understanding that I can give them a good sense of how to do the research, what to look for and where to orient themselves.”
Coles is a hands-on research partner, leveraging his considerable expertise to make the research process less daunting, whether it’s co-designing a study or navigating tricky questions on an Institutional Review Board application. “Showing them that process is of significant value because I don't want them to be surprised when they get into a doctoral program,” he explains. Even if the student has no plans to pursue another degree, Coles believes in the benefits of the process. “The walk through research is always a fruitful one.”
His work as a mentor has in turn expanded Coles’s already broad scholarly interests. “We follow each other through the vast maze of creating research,” says Coles, who holds degrees and certificates in music education, business administration, statistics and disruptive strategy to name just a few. “As they're figuring out what they want to do, we're bobbing and weaving between pieces of conceptual matter, methodological learnings or desires and then we'll find something that converges both our interests. But, every time that I do that, that's outside of the central themes of my research.”
Currently, Coles is nearing the finish line on a research article written with seven students from his music technology course. Perhaps emblematic of his approach to mentorship, the first author is Coles’s teaching assistant for the class Rebecca Mancuso, a TC student who rose to the occasion and led the project. Providing these kinds of opportunities to students is a central part of Cole’s philosophy toward scholarship because, in his words, “a rising tide lifts all ships in a bay, whether it's a CV item of mine or a CV item of theirs it'll raise all of us and elevate all of our work.”