Photo by Andrew Layton/Missouri S&T
William Zwikelmaier, director of career opportunities and employer relations (COER) at S&T, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on March 19. His dissertation is titled “Music Education as a Strategy to Narrow the Achievement Gap: A Causal-comparative Analysis of Band and Choir Enrollment and Academic Achievement of Low Socioeconomic Status Students.”
Zwikelmaier participated in the
educational doctorate learning community cohort at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis. His degree will be conferred in May.
While he currently
serves in a leadership role for COER, Zwikelmaier’s first career was as an
instrumental music educator. He chose to focus his doctoral research effort on
the role that fine arts and non-academic interventions can play in increasing
academic achievement.