Students for the Arts (StARTs)

Vital Stats

Michelle and Galit Z

San Diego, CA

people helped60
People Doing It25

The Problem

With educational budget cuts state wide in California, one of the first programs to be cut is music and art education. Music and art inspires creativity and individual expression, and we felt we needed to put back those values into schools that cannot sustain music and art programs. Our program provides young students with a hands-on experience with music, as we bring in instruments to teach numerous elementary school students at their schools or at their local recreational centers. We also feel that an interest in music helps young students retain an interest in education, as they can see tangible benefits from learning to practice and working hard to achieve goals while creating art and music. These vales are crucial for students to recognize the value of education and the value of pursuing interests wholeheartedly.

Plan of Action

Completely student run, we put our plans into action by starting up a club and amassing support, donations, and instruments. We then contacted schools about our planned program and received an overwhelmingly positive response from various elementary schools wanting us to bring our program to them. But at that time, we had limited resources so last year we could only volunteer at two schools in the San Diego area. At the schools, our volunteers prepared lesson plans in piano, guitar, violin, dance, and art, and taught anywhere from 2 to 6 students each. We volunteered at each school each week, and each week we were greeted with smiling and excited faces, ready and eager to get a chance to learn basic music lessons. At the end of the year, the violin class, which progressed far beyond our expectations, put on a performance for all the parents and students to see. At the moment students in our piano and guitar class have no way to practice at home, but each week they learn more and more, gaining greater interest in music with each passing week. This summer we expanded our program to recreational centers, where students would come, with their instruments, and receive free lessons that their parents could otherwise not afford. Being able to practice at home, these students have progressed rapidly. Some of our volunteers teach private lessons in our own community for money, and they have said that the students they teach, whose parents pay for the class, do not have as much drive as the students we teach for free at the recreational centers and elementary schools. Many of the students we teach at recreational centers have started their musical education elsewhere, but then been denied that education because their parents can not pay for it. They know the value of learning music and art, and greatly appreciate the resources we provide for them. Not one student we teach takes music lessons for granted. Through our volunteering experience, we have discovered some unique talented individuals who would have never been able to recognize their musical potential without being able to participate in our program.