Though she has played piano since kindergarten and maintained a nearly-perfect grade point average during her four undergraduate years, Jamie Howe said she was pleasantly surprised when her adviser called her to tell her that she had won the 2004 Student Laureate Award.

Presented by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the award recognizes outstanding seniors from each of the four-year degree-granting institutions of higher learning in Illinois.

Fifty-one students were recognized for excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities. Howe received a Student Laureate Medallion, along with a $150 honorarium and certificate of achievement.

“It’s nice to get nominated for things,” said Howe, a Music senior. “It was a special thing for me.”

Maud Hickey, professor of music education and technology, said she nominated Howe for the award because of Howe’s quiet but influential leadership in the music department, her good grades and her role teaching music in the community. Hickey described Howe as a “quiet leader, non-boastful and always positive.”

In 2002, Howe and alumni Elizabeth Bennett, Music ’04, founded the Music Learning Community, an organization that holds fund-raisers and provides free music and voice lessons to students from Evanston schools and area churches.

“We felt there was a real hole at NU that needed to be filled,” said Howe. “We wanted to build a music community at NU for people who appreciate music and love it.”

Howe also taught music to kindergartners and fifth graders during her two-year internship in NU’s “Partnerships Through the Arts,” a certificate program for students in the School of Education and Social Policy or in the School of Music.

“I had a fabulous mentor, my choir director, who inspired me to do music in high school,” Howe said. “Teaching it can be a real powerful experience and life-changing for kids, too.”

During her two years as the co-music director of the a cappella group Purple Haze, Howe arranged for the group to perform at a Chicago public school in front of 400 children.

She added that although she is very involved with music and teaching, her friends are just as important.

“I try to prioritize and make relationships one of my main priorities,” Howe said.

Howe plans to work at a public school, at an arts organization or as a church music director after her graduation this spring. She also plans to eventually earn a master’s degree.

“It’s kinda overwhelming, but I’m just praying a lot and hope doors will be open,” she said.

Reach Ilya Bunimovich at [email protected].