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Nora Keifer

Nora Keifer
Belvidere, New Jersey
Odyssey Overland, LLC
Scholarship Won: TCA Scholarship - $2,000

As a music education major and supporter of the arts, one would not at first generally consider these areas of study quite relevant to the transportation industry.  This past year however, several of my classes encouraged us to consider some thought provoking questions about music education and its application to democracy, schooling, and society.

Transporting goods from point A to point B is like composing a good piece of music.  First, there is a need for inspiration in order to develop an idea.  Once an idea is in mind, one has to plan the structure of the setup.  Music includes sketches of a motive or brief musical idea such as a simple melody of the piece.  A key needs to be established with resolutions throughout the piece to the dominant (the fifth chord) and the tonic (the first chord or root of the key in which it is established).  In transportation, this structure would be the trucking equipment, its associated terminals and reliable fleet.

On a broader view, music and transportation are quite universal.  Without transportation the world as we know it would cease to exist.  If goods were not delivered all commerce would stop and people would go hungry.  Similarly, music serves as a means for communication in an aesthetic sense.  When a composer writes a piece of music, he or she is writing it in essence, to the world.

Transportation has impacted my life in every way.  The food I eat, the clothes I wear, the instruments I play and materials that built the house I live in, have all been moved via transportation’s many modes.  As we have witnessed during the most recent and unfortunate world tragedies, aid comes in many forms; usually on the back end of a truck.