{"id":24551,"date":"2024-12-07T10:19:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T17:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-band-teacher-chosen-to-represent-colorado-in-national-magazine\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:55:19","slug":"cortez-middle-school-band-teacher-chosen-to-represent-colorado-in-national-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-band-teacher-chosen-to-represent-colorado-in-national-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez middle school band teacher chosen to represent Colorado in national magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Andrew
Andrew Campo was selected as the teacher representative for Colorado in the School Band and Orchestra Magazine article, \u201c50 Music Teachers Who Make a Difference.\u201d (Andrew Campo\/Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Andrew Campo, a band teacher and electives team leader at the Cortez Middle School, was nominated and selected to represent Colorado in the national School<\/em> Band<\/em> and<\/em> Orchestra<\/em> Magazine\u2019s<\/em> article about \u201c50 Music Teachers Who Make a Difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

One teacher from each state was selected for the article and were nominated by a fellow teacher, community member or student. Campo told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> that he doesn\u2019t know who nominated him, but he was honored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a humbling honor for me, but also highlights the excellence of the middle school band program and the important place it holds in the hearts of our town,\u201d Campo said.<\/p>\n

Campo, a Hampden, Maine native, has been a teacher for 28 years now. He has been teaching in Cortez for the last 17 years.<\/p>\n

He earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in music education at the University of Maine and a master\u2019s degree from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He also earned his National Board Teaching Certification in 2006, something that less than 4% of teachers in the United States have achieved.<\/p>\n

The desire to become a teacher, however, started when Campo quickly became a proficient trumpet player as a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had always been an introvert, so that helped me gain confidence, and I came out of my shell a little bit,\u201d Campo said. \u201cThe better I got, the more I wanted to practice. When I was in high school, I did a couple of different honor bands, including all-state. When I saw the caliber of music being made there, I said, \u2018I want to do something with this regarding my career.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The very thing that inspired Campo to become a teacher is also his favorite part about being a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing them come out of their shell, seeing them find confidence, seeing them find someplace they belong, some place they fit in,\u201d Campo said. \u201cThis is the place where they feel like they can be themselves \u2026 That\u2019s what I really enjoy, to see the kids grow, of course, in music, but also as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Campo\u2019s students have performed and worked with Grammy nominated and Grammy award-winning artists, played on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, played on national television and appeared in the movie \u201cDrumline.\u201d Some were also nominated for a Grammy and Latin Grammy award and signed with recording labels.<\/p>\n

Under his direction, the CMS music program was recognized as a SupportMusic Merit Award Winner by the NAMM Foundation<\/a> in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. It was also honored as one of 100 schools chosen by the by the Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus Foundation\u2019s Adopt A School Program.<\/p>\n

He was also honored as CMS\u2019s \u201cTeacher of the Year\u201d for 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n

When he first received the email about being featured, Campo initially didn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never in a million years thought I would get recognition like that. I\u2019m not sure I deserve it,\u201d Campo said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to do my job, but to think that somebody thought highly enough to nominate me is pretty cool \u2026 I think it does reflect upon our program, not just me, but everything we\u2019ve got going on here in Cortez.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campo also said he was \u201cblessed\u201d to have \u201camazing music teachers growing up\u201d who inspired him and a \u201cwonderfully supportive family\u201d in his wife Kelly and children Travis and Grace. He is also grateful to have support from school officials and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just me, it\u2019s everybody working together toward a common goal that\u2019s important. We\u2019ve got a good thing going, and people are working hard to keep it going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The magazine can be read online at sboplus.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

has been teaching in Cortez for 17 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,147,155,28,60,559,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-music","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78576,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24551\/revisions\/78576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24551"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}