BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – Nick Hinkle is the latest winner for WVVA and Cole Chevy’s Teacher Feature Contest. Hinkle has served as Bluefield High School’s band director for the last nine years.
Hinkle was nominated for a number of reasons including his willingness to get students involved with regional college honor bands. He’s taken students to a number of schools including West Virginia University, Virginia Tech and Marshall University.
“It’s a great experience. It gives them connections on the college level. They can see what those opportunities are like not just as a high school student but they can see that they can continue their career whether they want to make that their main job moving forward or not,” said Hinkle. “They get a lot of different experiences. It’s great connections and it’s a lot of cool opportunities that most high school students don’t get.”
Hinkle is also in charge over all county which allows middle and high school students in Mercer County to audition for a show held at the Chuck Mathena Center each year.
He’s also credited with creating the first ever Beaver Classic band competition that was held at Mitchell Stadium in October.
“It’s a massive builder for our community. Our community has so many great things going on with athletics and we can show musically we are just as competent as any of our other sports,” said Hinkle. “It gives us a great opportunity to get out there and really show all interests in the Bluefield area.”
Hinkle says as his students move forward in life he hopes they use life lessons learned from band to build up themselves as well as those around them.
Hinkle played in bands at both Princeton High School and Bluefield University. He credits his band teacher Julie Kade for influencing him to find his home in the musical world.
If you want to submit an outstanding educator for the contest you can do so by going here.
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