Research supports the importance of policies and interventions to infuse social emotional curricula in schools (Waajid, Garner & Owen, 2013). The present focus of teacher certification standards in the United States is on developing the cognitive components associated with teaching, with very little attention being given to the social emotional development of teachers or their understanding of these skills in students (Gomez, Allen & Clinton, 2004). The focus of this research was to: implement a Social Emotional Learning training module and examine the impacts, develop an assessment rubric for the evaluation of student interns’ ability to apply Social Emotional Learning Competencies into their pedagogy, and investigate the impact of the Social Emotional Learning training module on the student interns’ ability to apply the Competencies into their pedagogical practice. Undergraduate music education students (N=26) enrolled in a research and assessment course experienced SEL instructional techniques in their course of study by conducting research on Social Emotional Learning, developing a curricular unit embedding social emotional learning through music, and engaging in weekly reflective SEL training modules using McConkey and Edgar’s (2022) Social Emotional Learning for the Pre-Service and In-Service Music Teacher: A Guide for Developing Teacher SEL Competencies workbook. A rubric was developed to measure interns’ ability to implement SEL Competencies into their pedagogy and used by both the intern and mentor teacher during the full time internship. A survey was administered to the intern cohort at the end of the internship. Results from this study indicate that the Social Emotional Learning training module positively influenced interns’ ability to integrate SEL strategies into their teaching practice. Interns reported feeling more confident applying SEL techniques in elementary settings but found it more challenging to do so at the secondary level. This difference may reflect the fact that the pedagogical strategies used in the training align more naturally with the structure of elementary music curricula. Additionally, interns expressed a preference for SEL instruction to be spread out throughout their degree program rather than concentrated in a single course, allowing for deeper understanding and opportunities to apply SEL strategies across diverse musical contexts. The assessment tool developed to measure student interns’ mastery of SEL competencies was effective, as mentor teachers and interns produced consistent results. This tool will serve as a valuable instrument for evaluating student interns’ proficiency in meeting the SEL competencies required for teacher certification. Keywords: Social emotional learning, music education, teacher preparation