Fifth-grader provides inspiration at Duggan

WHITE LAKE, NY — Fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Monticello Enrichment Program (MEP) were recently treated to a presentation by Rebecca Nicole Herz, an aspiring 10-year-old performer from the Guggenheim Elementary School in Port Washington. Herz traveled from Long Island with her father to help Duggan Elementary School students understand the art of performance.

Duggan music teacher Joyce Wells, who has known Herz for years, facilitated the presentation. The students in the Duggan MEP program are working on writing a musical, and Wells thought that it would be useful to introduce them to a self-directed peer, who composes her own music and has a message about being committed to the arts.

Since she was seven years old, Herz has used the stoop of her grandmother’s house as her stage. She aspires to become a famous songwriter, singer and actress, and to perform for people in shelters who need to know they are not alone.

Herz was accompanied by Duggan’s own celebrity musician and teacher, John Slaver, in a performance of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.” As a finale, she shared one of her own pieces called “Mesmerized.”

Fourth grader Jonathan Conklin summed up his experience in this way: “I always thought I was smart and could easily talk in front of a group. Now, I know that I have some polishing to do to gain the respect that I feel for this girl and her talent.”