Mrs. Shaniee Kennedy was a first-generation college student who was raised by her great-grandmother, attended LEAP in 2011 and returned multiple times as a Life Coach at UCLA and served as a camp counselor at the Ronald McDonald House Charities Camp for Good Times for kids with pediatric cancer. While completing her BM in Music Education and Clarinet Performance at CSU Northridge, she studied with Dr. Julia Heinen, and competed for the Miss California Icon Organization and won in 2014. She was named CSUN’s Outstanding Graduating Senior Finalist in 2015. While serving as the assistant conductor of the CSUN Youth Orchestra, Mrs. Kennedy studied at The Catholic University of America, University of Maryland, and University of Georgia, in the Clarinet Academy of America. After winning the Miss America local title of Miss Malibu Coast 2016, she competed at Miss California and won the Talent Award and Highest Academic Achievement award. She earned her Masters in clarinet performance at UCLA under Gary Gray, and has traveled throughout the US to promote both scholarship and her platform of “Keeping Quality Music Education in California Schools and the Importance of Live Music.” Her speeches at Music Advocacy Day in the State Capitol allowed for a unanimous vote to pass three Senate Bills for new state standards for music education to be rewritten. Shaniee Kennedywas selected to give the commencement speech for the Inaugural Herb Alpert School of Music and received the Dean’s Medal in June 2017 at UCLA. Shaniee is a Buffet Crampon Artist and sponsored by Beaumont Music. She served as a member of the all female clarinet quartet known as Four Play Clarinet for the past 6 years. She is currently the clarinet professor at The Masters University as well as the new Orchestra and Choir director at Lindero Canyon Middle School and Strings Teacher Mariposa School of Global Education. Shaniee continues to teach, conduct, perform, record, advocate for music education. She is currently enrolled at Mount Saint Mary’s University for her second Masters Degree in the Science of Education.