South Bronx 6th Graders Need Violins for New Youth Orchestra!
Help me give my students violins for an intensive, totally cost-free, after-school classical orchestra training/music education program.
$2,321 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
The South Bronx, NY is currently home to some of our brightest young future leaders! The students who will be entering the 6th grade this fall are facing the most pivotal years of their lives: middle school.
This talented group of 6th graders, each with a passion for learning a musical instrument, comes from mostly low-income households.
While some would consider them to be "at-risk" youth, they all have landed in a good, safe, and unique place, where their determination, effort, and strong character will allow them to achieve even greater success beyond graduating with their high school class of 2026.
As incoming citizens to our vibrant community of learners, their academic and socio-emotional needs will be provided for over the next seven years by our dedicated faculty. During this time, they will also have the opportunity to grow their musical talent and passion outside of the classroom. Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu believed the orchestra was a model for society. Through this new after-school Youth Orchestra Program, which I am creating, middle school students will be given the opportunity to embark on a lifelong musical journey!
My Project
This fall for the first time ever at the Bronx public school where I am a Spanish instructor, a Youth Orchestra Program is forming! Drawing on my pedagogical background in Music Education, I am creating the South Bronx Preparatory String Orchestra!!
Undoubtedly, it will be a welcome and much needed addition to our resilient school community, further enabling our students to thrive in spite of the odds, but not without your financial support.
While enthusiasm and moral support abound on all fronts, there is currently no funding available for instruments to help make this dream a reality. Therefore, we must build this together from scratch. Violins are the paramount and most desperately needed resource for this project to move forward. With your generous help, I will be able to start the first cohort of eager sixth-graders on violin this year, which will require at least a dozen decent-quality violins. As the program grows, this first group of students will become the orchestra elders, as each consecutive year new cohorts of sixth graders are recruited to the orchestra ranks on the other string instruments: viola, cello, and bass.
The orchestra will meet after school three times weekly, with the same intensity as many varsity sports programs. Peer-to-peer mentoring is a huge component, as new recruits will coached by senior members. I know from previous experience that this model of youth orchestra-building yields outstanding results which transcend beyond the orchestra itself and positively transform entire communities. As orchestra members, children not only learn the universal language of music and practice the highly-demanding and immensely rewarding skills of mastering a musical instrument, they also develop discipline, self-esteem and valuable interpersonal life skills, becoming catalysts for positive social change in the process.
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