September 13, 2024
When you Google “Sarah” and “Butler School of Music,” the first website that appears is the bio for Assistant Director for Admission, Sarah Goerg. Yes, even before our many well-known alumni named Sarah and even before Sarah Butler, whom the school is named after. This shows just how important Sarah Goerg is to the school—so much so that even Google recognizes it. While it might be surprising that Google knows this, everyone in the building already understands the significance of her work.
A Screenshot of my Google Search for "Sarah and Butler School of Music"
Unfortunately for the Butler community, Sarah has taken a new job at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in her hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, once again overseeing admissions. It is a bit bittersweet for her; she says she will miss the people and Butler (though she adds she will miss it more in February than in July). However, she looks forward to fall colors, summer camping, family, and, most importantly, reuniting with her partner, with whom she has maintained a long-distance relationship.
Sarah has played a major role at Butler, overseeing all admissions decisions. “Some of my most memorable moments are the students who got rejected,” she recalls, “because I remember the ones who were rejected and then worked hard to get in later.” She remembers one student who was rejected five years in a row before finally being accepted. “It always felt good telling those students they got accepted because they had spent the time practicing, working hard, and getting better.”
Sarah’s path to Butler was through music education, though perhaps one of the most interesting paths ever for a music education student. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, where she was principal clarinetist with the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Eau Claire Clarinet Quartet. She chose UW-Eau Claire because she did not want to attend Lawrence University in her hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, where her parents went and where she spent her childhood taking music lessons at their community school.
After graduation, Sarah student-taught in England at a military base before teaching on an Indian reservation. She taught the children of soldiers on the base but always longed for the Southwest. “I knew I wanted to teach in Arizona, New Mexico, or Nevada,” she recalls. While student teaching, she used the base's library to research jobs online. She landed an interview at the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona, and was offered the job at the end of the phone interview. She flew back to Appleton, packed up a U-Haul, and headed for Arizona.
Google Maps image of the main shopping district in Whiteriver Arizona
Sarah taught band, choir, and general music at Canyon Day Junior High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona. Whiteriver is so small that a Google Images search revealed no pictures of the town, and even on Google Maps, it is hard to determine when you are in the town because there is so little to see. She wore many hats, not only teaching music to kids who had never played an instrument before but also raising money to fund the program. It was a grueling job, but under her tenure, the ensembles grew tremendously in size. However, the small rural town brought its own challenges. “It was a lonely job,” Sarah recalls, and after a couple of years, she returned to school to get a certificate in Band Instrument Repair Technology from Renton Technical College in Renton, Washington. This brought her to Austin, but just as Whiteriver was lonely, so was sitting at a bench repairing instruments all day. Sarah said, “I missed the people,” and when an admissions counselor position opened up in 2008, she took the job. The people at Butler convinced her to come, and the people at Butler convinced her to stay for 16 years.
Sarah Goerg will be missed, but her legacy at Butler will remain. She helped guide the school through the Great Recession of 2008, the pandemic, and thousands of applications from students worldwide that have made Butler a global presence. Sarah directly impacted a significant part of our growth in the last 16 years. My guess is that in a few years, when you Google “Sarah” and “Lawrence Conservatory of Music,” the first website will be the new bio of Sarah Goerg, because she will be that crucial to them, and because Google seems to know this stuff somehow.