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As a Native of Korea, I am currently a Master's student at Colorado State University (CSU). Prior to my education at CSU, I received a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy from University of Iowa and completed music therapy internship working with individuals with developmental disabilities at Fairview Developmental Center in California.I grew up playing the piano and violin since the age of five. Music has been always in my life, but I never expected to find myself becoming a music therapist until the summer of 2005. During a mission trip to Indonesia where I helped people who suffered from poverty and famine, I thought about how I can help other with my talents and skills. Thus, music therapy became a special interest to me and I decided to pursue my goal becoming a music therapist and to help others.While studying in the United States, I also studied about music therapy in my country. The development and history of music therapy as a profession in Korea has been relatively short compared to that of Western countries; however, I have had a strong sense of positive growth of music therapy. The number of schools offering music therapy program has rapidly grown since 1996 when only two schools had undergraduate program in music therapy. Currently, there are two graduate schools offer Master’s and Ph. D. program in music therapy and nine schools offer undergraduate programs in Korea. Korea has more than one way to be certified as a music therapist and each music therapy association has its own credentials. Thus, I believe that the ultimate goal for Korean music therapists is to create a national music therapy association and one credential system to provide an objective national standard that can be used as a measure of professionalism.I expect that 2011 WFMT World Congress of Music Therapy in Seoul, Korea will contribute a tremendous development of music therapy in Korea as well as in Asia. I look forward to broadening my knowledge and experiences by connecting with music therapist from all around the globe. Attending the World Congress will enable me to define further my professional objectives as well. I hope to see everyone at the World Congress!Hae Sun Kim, Graduate Student at the Colorado State University, USA
