Search for Lucie Leerer in The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music staff directory, and you’ll find the title “Academic Advisor.” Accurate? Yes. But also incomplete.
As a student affairs officer, Lucie’s job is much bigger. She liaises with the faculty in academic departments, advises students on academic and career pathways and develops initiatives to improve the student experience during their time at the school of music.
Lucie is a musician herself—a singer and a pianist. And, along with her student affairs team, she brings her passion for music and education together in her work.
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How long have you been working at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music?
I started in fall of 2022.
How did you get into music?
I started playing classical piano in middle school and went to an arts high school. I was a vocalist before that. But by high school, I knew that I wanted to study music in college. When I was a college student, I started teaching private lessons and tutoring in music theory. And it was something that I really enjoyed.
What brought you to work to work at the school of music?
When I graduated, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet. And I was talking to an academic advisor who was really instrumental in my time here as a student. She suggested that this might be something I’d be interested in doing.
And she was right?
Yes. I love working with other people and helping them achieve their goals. I suppose I had always thought I would be working with younger students, but the work I’m doing now showed me that there was a path to doing this in higher education.
Are you primarily an academic advisor in student affairs?
Yes, but that’s not my only role. Our core responsibilities involve academic advising, but being advisors in the school of music means that we also help students navigate so many aspects of the student experience, notably career paths. Music students sometimes have clear career paths, but many students in the major programs I work with have very diverse trajectories. I help them navigate and evaluate the different opportunities available to them.
What are some of the challenges you face?
Academic advisors are really on the front lines, working directly with students, on every-day and long-term challenges. Every student has their unique reason for being here and unique academic path, so we have to be prepared to be flexible, pivot, and jump in as needed in order to meet a student where they are. Now having been here a few years, it’s so rewarding to have followed the journey of students who I met as first-years and are now preparing to graduate this year.
You were hired the year the school launched the music industry interdisciplinary program.
That’s right.
Those must have been busy times.
There were hundreds of details that we had to figure out at an administrative level after they created the major. I worked really closely with Robert Fink and Tiffany Naiman, because after you create a curriculum on paper, you have to make sure the major works in practice. We were also preparing to accept the first cohort of music industry students while still successfully graduating the cohorts who were music history and industry students [the major that existed prior to the creation of the BA in music industry].
And we had a really successful transition and I’m proud of what we accomplished.
So, after getting thrown in the deep end and helping launch a program, what other initiatives have you undertaken?
This Fall we launched a resource week where we invited campus partners to the school and hosted a number of informational events for our students. The events were for undergraduate and graduate students, and importantly for students at different stages of their degree. So we had people from study abroad lead a session, and another with people from the career center. We also had a special event for our graduating seniors.
This was inspired by a resource fair that I organized along with Adam Fox a couple of years ago. I learned a lot from that event—it was one of my first times putting on a big event with other campus partners where I was in the lead in that space.
What did you learn from that first event?
Well, we learned that the single day “fair” wasn’t the format that worked best for us or the students. When you have a bunch of tables set up and students can visit different tables, students can really only get an introduction and a flyer.
So this summer, we said ‘let’s think about it differently.’ And then rather than just holding an event, we expanded it to a series of events throughout the week. This format allowed us to still meet the original goal of connecting students with campus resources. And we were also able to be intentional about the advising events that we felt would serve students the most. I’m excited to see how we develop it further next year.
Do you still have a piano?
I have an electric Yamaha that I’ve had since middle school. I’m very lucky to have a family friend who has a truck and he drove the piano down from Northern to Southern California during COVID. And I’ve been lugging that piano around to several apartments.
I think the thing is, and maybe other musicians can relate to this, because piano was a part of school, for a while it felt like I was completing an assignment to sit down and play. But piano is still a big part of me, and I want to let go of that pressure and just enjoy it. So one of my New Years’ Resolutions is to start playing again.
What are you working on now?
You know, I grew up on Disney as a kid, and I love those movies. So I got a Disney songbook and I’m starting there. And songbooks are a great way to rediscover the love of an instrument.
So what’s next for you, musically?
You know, one of the things I thought would be really fun is if we had a staff choir.
Sounds like a task for a seasoned administrator with musical skills.
We’ll see!
