As many people know, Benilde-St. Margaret’s is welcoming many new faculty and staff members into our community. One of these people is the new choir teacher, Miriam Augsburger. Going on her 17th year of teaching music, she expressed excitement to extend her career here at BSM.
She previously taught at Rockford Area Schools District, and throughout her career, she has taught all levels from kindergarten through 12th grade. Augsburger is enjoying her time teaching so far. Throughout her time here, she has come to love how passionate her students are about music, and she plans to encourage more people to join the choir here at BSM. “The students here are really excited about music. I’m really enjoying working with them. And I’m really excited to help the choir program grow and bring in more people,” Augsburger said.
Not only is Augsburger excited about teaching, but her students are excited to be learning from her. Sophomore Tobi Ingwalson is enjoying the choir program because it brings happiness to their day with lighter work than most of the typical class work.“She helps people and she’s understanding, so I think she’s just overall a really nice person,” Ingwalson said.
When asked why she teaches choir, Augsburger said that choir is a very important skill and that she wants her students to understand the music. Her teaching style expands to the point where she not only teaches students to sing, but she helps them understand what they are singing. “Being a singer is something that’s a part of you for the rest of your life. And so I want students to learn how to use their voices. I want them to learn to enjoy all kinds of music. Listening to it, making it, and understanding the history behind it,” Augsburger said.

Along with wanting students to learn more about music, Augsburger hopes students will get a lot out of taking choir with her this year. She thinks choir is a nice break from hard school work and wants to teach students that singing is fun and far from learning from a textbook. “You get to be in [a] community, you get to be creative and make something beautiful together, which is something that can really fill your soul in the middle of a long school day,” Augsburger said.