LONGMEADOW – The walls of Kayla Werlin’s office at Longmeadow High School (LHS) are filled with cards, momentos and even a quilt, given to her over the years by students. A choir teacher and chair of the school’s music department, she has stories about many of them. That love she has for her students is one of the reasons Werlin is being presented with a Music Teachers of Excellence award from the Country Music Association (CMA) Foundation.

On May 5, Werlin will be one of 30 teachers from across the country to receive the honor in Nashville, TN. The CMA Foundation, the non-profit, philanthropic arm of the CMA, has $27 million across the national public school system, after school programs, summer camps and community outreach organizations. The foundation’s criteria for the award is “based on their dedication to bringing a high-quality music program to their students and the impact they’ve had on their school community through music,” according to their press release announcing the winners.

Werlin, was previously inducted into the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association, had heard about the award through a friend who was a former recipient.

“What immediately grabbed me was that the Country Music Association Foundation was giving back to schools,” Werlin said. “It's exciting to know that the performing artists in the CMA are giving back.” The recipients are awarded $5,000 each, with half of the money going to classroom needs and the music program and the other half to the teacher for professional development and personal expenses.

Werlin received recommendation letters from LHS Principal Thomas Landers and the parent of one of her students and sent in an application for the award, which included writing “a great deal about the philosophy of why I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for 38 years.”

Werlin received her education through Tufts University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. When she was in college, she was initially interested in theater, but said when she “left music behind” she missed it and reconsidered her life path.

“I knew that performing was something I loved, but it wasn't a mission for me,” Werlin said, adding “you can't imagine a " richer or more fulfilling career” than teaching music.

She first taught music in elementary schools, but found it was not for her.

“If I had to sing “Five Little Freckled Frogs” one more time …,” Werlin laughed. Werlin also taught at the middle school level, which she said was “the best training,” but said that teaching high school students is where she felt at home.

“It's the perfect balance of [students] really being interested in the subject matter combined with asking the big questions. It never gets old,” Werlin told Reminder Publishing. And while she said that, statistically, only two percent of her students will go on to a career in music, music will likely always be a part of their lives.

Music is a part of Werlin’s life, even outside of her job. She sings with an acapella group "cantabile, " which she said performs about eight times a year. While she enjoys performing, “the rewards aren’t as deep,” as they are with teaching.

“When you see my students making music together, that sense of community is like nothing else,” Werlin reflected. She also praised the administration at LHS, calling the support for the music program, “unparalleled.”

Werlin said the CMA Foundation gives the awards “because they understand that without music in the schools there won't be music.” She stopped and corrected herself. “There will be music,” but she said that with nurturing a love for music in the next generation, “we lose a little bit of who we are as humans.”

For more information about the CMA Foundation, visit CMAfoundation.org.