Seward County Community College/Area Technical School music instructor Magda Silva has recently received her doctorate in musical arts from Arizona State University. Along with receiving her doctorate degree Silva also has learned a lot about teaching here in her first year at Seward. “I’ve learned a lot of things, like not to be such a softie,” Silva said. Silva admits that she has been pretty lenient this year when it comes to receiving late assignments but hopes to make things easier for both herself and her students next year by being more firm with deadlines. “I remember when I was in first year in college like many of my students I made the choice of hanging out with my friends instead of writing a paper. Because it’s hard to stay on track when it’s your first year of freedom. So I’ve been pretty lenient this year, but next year I’m going to try and be more firm with my assignments,” Silva said. Silva has also learned to adapt to her surroundings here at Seward and appreciate the smaller school setting that allows her to have closer interactions with her students and faculty and staff. “Another thing that I have learned to love about here is that the faculty and the administration tries really hard to not let anybody fall into the cracks. When you get to big schools it’s very easy to become lost in the everything that’s going on. But here i love that it’s very easy to be hands on with the students and be able to have closer interactions with them compared to in bigger schools,” Silva said. Students however do agree that Silva has done a great job in her first year teaching at Seward. “Miss Silva has done an amazing job as a teacher, she’s so talented and she has been a great mentor for me,” choir member Lilia Torres said. Now that Silva has her doctorate degree she has a new set of goals she would like to achieve with her newly found spare time. “All my spare time has gone to working on this, so I’m behind on a lot of things like recreational reading and watching new movies. But I have a list of things I want to read, like the Harry Potter series. I also look forward to having more time to work on more things around here with my students.” Silva also hopes to take everything she has learned this year and take more time to explore her surroundings and do things she didn’t have time to do this year. “This year has been more of a head down, move foward sort of experience. Next year I want to be able to enjoy my surroundings more and be able to go to the games support the teams, and be able to explore my surroundings more,” Silva said.