Life is a journey, one that most of us have no idea where we’re going, what to aspire to, and who we are. That was the case with Donshon Wilson who majored in psychology and attained a degree in it. Never did he imagine that one day he’d be a band director, something he’s still doing twenty-eight years later.
Donshon has always loved music, not as a job or something he had to do. “I used to always go around the house banging on things. It started off with banging on my closet door. It produced a certain sound that got to me, so I’d make these beats on the door. That eventually made its way to the pots and pans in the kitchen. That’s when my mom said, ‘You know what? We’re going to put you in the band.’ And that’s where I got started, at Chambers Elementary School in the fourth grade. I always wanted to play the drums.”
That led to private lessons where his teacher, Bruce Collie, saw something in Donshon that he didn’t see in himself. To begin with, Donshon went along with the lessons, basically doing what he was told to do. “When someone asks you to do something, you just get on track and do it.” It wasn’t until he entered solo and ensemble contests that he began to realize that he had talent.
That talent grew and Donshon went from jazz band to concert band and then the Cleveland String Orchestra. The director challenged everyone to master another instrument, so Donshon chose the cello. Despite this, though, he decided to go to college and major in psychology.
“When I got my degree, I was trying to find jobs, so I worked at a drug and alcohol rehab center in Columbus. I was a therapeutic community facilitator, so pretty much it was 12-hour shifts in a group home setting, helping people administer their medications, and taking clients to their appointments — just mentoring them throughout the day.”
But then, Donshon’s mother’s job transferred her to Atlanta, and she needed his help selling her home in East Cleveland. To support himself, Donshon began teaching as a substitute teacher. Once he saw the positive impact he had on students, he realized how much he really enjoyed teaching.
“One thing led to another, and I ended up coming back to my old high school just to volunteer. Because I played the drums, I heard students playing all the cadences wrong. So, I re-taught them. After a while, I became a percussion instructor, then the assistant band director, and then the band director — and here I am, 28 years later, at another school district.”
As Donshon puts it, “You never really know what your journey is. You’re just on this road until you figure it out.” And figure it out, he did. All of his musical experience and his background in psychology came to the fore as he dealt with a spectrum of behaviors and attitudes with students in the school bands.
“Music is a vehicle, a tool to allow me to do the things to really impact the lives of the students that I’m blessed to be in front of and to teach them how to navigate through music, school, and life. I have students who don’t have a traditional music background — a lot of my students have never played an instrument before. So, the way we teach is a little bit at a time, a lot of repetition, a lot of ear training, and more.”
Donshon also explained that a lot of the students weren’t academically sound and had a lot of behavioral problems, but he was able to use music as a tool to help them navigate through all of that. He had students pulling straight D’s and F’s. Now they all have A’s and B’s.
And it isn’t just the lives of students that are changed, it’s often the lives of parents who become more involved in their child’s music activities, such as with the Booster Club. Some of the parents develop life-long friendships.
As Donshon puts it, “Either you’re hungry for life or you’re not, and that depends on what you put in front of yourself, what you’re going to continue to appreciate and achieve. It’s just all about how you look at life and your opportunities.”
Donshon is a strong believer in not putting individuals in a box. “Thirty percent of what I do is music. The other seventy percent is just really digging down deep into people’s souls to let them understand how great they can be as a person and the impact that they can have in life. Everyone is born with a talent, a gift, a passion, and has greatness in them. Let’s help them see it and achieve it.”
