Community & Alumni Blog
Injury, care of faculty leads to fulfilling change in career direction
Kim Wiens was an accomplished pianist and clarinettist studying music performance at Canadian Mennonite Bible College when a terrible injury forced her to re-evaluate her future.
During the summer between her first and second year at CMBC, one of CMU’s predecessor colleges, Wiens worked as a counsellor at Camp Valaqua in Water Valley, AB. She was moving a ping-pong table with its sides up. One of the sides came crashing down, crushing her hand.
Excruciating pain followed and Wiens thought she would never be able to play piano again. She was rushed to the hospital and underwent the first of many surgeries to reconstruct her hand.
Lying in the hospital, Wiens resolved to continue her studies at CMBC.
“I made it my mission that I wasn’t going to feel sorry for myself,” she says, adding that although she was devastated by the injury, she saw it as an opportunity for growth.
Wiens returned to CMBC the next month, juggling classes with multiple doctor and rehab appointments each week.
She credits music professors Esther Wiebe, Dietrich Bartel, and Rudy Schellenberg with helping her.
When they realized she would no longer be able to pursue a degree in clarinet performance, Wiens’ professors suggested she take her love of music theory and change the focus of her degree to composition.
“They saw something in me that I wouldn’t necessarily have been able to see in myself,” Wiens says.
“There was value and worth in me pursuing music, even though I couldn’t pursue it in the way I had originally envisioned. People believing in me helped me move past that pity party... to where I had something to offer.”
Wiens adds that the entire experience has been very significant in her life. After graduating from CMBC in 1997, she earned her Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Alberta. She has been an elementary school music teacher since 2000.
Today, Wiens lives in Edmonton with her husband, Mathew (CMBC 1995-1997), and their two sons. She teaches in a Mandarin-English bilingual school.
Wiens says that while she hopes her students leave Grade 6 with fantastic music skills, even more important to her is that they leave loving music.
“Music is such a significant part of everyone’s life,” Wiens says. “Throughout your life you have such a range of emotions when it comes to music, and I want those early memories to be positive ones.”
Wiens’ quest to be the best music educator she can be, coupled with her interest in lifelong learning, led her to study music education at the graduate level at University of Alberta. She graduated with her Master of Education last year.
Her research was born out of a feeling she had in the classroom that something was missing in terms of what she was offering her Chinese students, many of whom are first-generation Canadians.
Wiens’ studies took her to China twice, where she visited schools to observe classrooms and experience the way students like hers study before they come to Canada.
“What I came to realize and appreciate with all of my study was that I need to empower my students,” she says.
“They come in with a wealth of knowledge and experience. How can I tap into that knowledge and those experiences to make their music education more meaningful for them?”
One way Wiens has endeavoured to make her students’ music education more meaningful is to bring Chinese folk songs into the classroom.
She is currently working on a project to transcribe Chinese folk songs for use in North America.
“There are so many Chinese students, but limited resources,” Wiens says. “I want to create a place where people can access authentic Chinese folk songs in western notation.”
Wiens plans to create a website so that these songs are available to the public. In addition to sheet music, the website will include background information and an audio recording of each song.
It’s all part of Wiens’ efforts to make a difference as a teacher, just as her professors have made a difference in her life.
“The professors at CMBC and CMU really know their students,” Wiens says.
“Esther, Rudy, and Dietrich all had to have known me really well to offer me that option of composing as my major. If I was just a number, they wouldn’t have been able to do it in the same way. They knew me well enough to know this is something I would succeed in.”
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