Stand Partners at Foundation Academies
The Stand Partners program brings together world class musicians to train and inspire honors music students. Trenton native, Michelle Djokic, cellist and a founder of the Concordia Chamber Players, helps support the program. Michelle teaches master classes at the successful charter school in Trenton. Watch the video here.
Jazz Academy at Solebury School
For five summers students from the inner city and Bucks County came together for a week of intense musical instruction, life skills seminars and fun. They were taught by Oberlin Conservatory faculty and students and jazz greats like Barry Harris.
Role modeling was key to the program’s success. Students saw that hard work made a difference for their older peers. At Solebury School they experienced a campus-like environment and started to rethink their future. Today, several students from Camden, NJ, where the high school dropout rate is 90%, have graduated from Oberlin. The Creative Arts Jazz Band program uses music as a tool to pull students from the abyss and help them cross the graduation finish line.
Support for Environmental Programs
The Environmental Club at New Hope-Solebury HS organized a multi-media and music event around World Water Day 2009. Through music and watching trailers from the documentaries, FLOW and Liquid Assets, the audience learned about water rights and conservation and went home with a reusable water bottle. Proceeds from the event were used to build a well in Malawi, Africa. Watch the video Music with a Mission.
Today we support Caminos de Aqua who provide clean water access in Mexico through ceramic filters and rain harvesting, the high school mentoring program at Bigelow Labs in Maine and the 2 week hike on the Appalachian Trail for boys at Baltimore’s Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy.
