Musical Empowerment at NC State

 “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” 

- Plato

Every Park Scholar completes a Civic Engagement Initiative (CEI) during their sophomore year in which the Park Scholarships program pairs students with an organization based on its needs and the interests and strengths of the students. The goals of the CEIs are to “introduce Park Scholars to community needs and how organizations operate to address those needs, create beneficial community change, and teach Park Scholars skills they can use to make lifelong community contributions.” I partnered with Musical Empowerment at NC State for my CEI (2020-2021) along with another Park Scholar in my class named Camilla. Musical Empowerment is an organization that provides free one-on-one music lessons to children in underserved communities by recruiting talented college students to volunteer as music teachers for these students.  Together, Camilla and I served on the leadership team for Musical Empowerment and worked to recruit new teachers for the organization as well as strengthen the connection between students already serving as teachers.

To recruit teachers for the organization, we planned and executed interest meetings as well as other events, created promotional materials such as flyers, and connected Musical Empowerment with other musical, artistic, and educational organizations on campus. With every teacher that was recruited for the organization, one student was able to come off the waitlist of children that would like the opportunity to learn an instrument. As a musician myself, I have always believed in the power and importance of music education, and I have witnessed firsthand how music changes lives. I love Musical Empowerment’s mission and enjoyed working with their leadership team this past year. I plan to remain on the leadership team during my Junior year as their treasurer.

Working with this organization gave me experience serving on a team of leaders. I was able to see what strategies work best when trying to accomplish tasks with other people, one of those being the delegation of work based on individual strengths. I think this will help me as a future teacher because I plan to serve on school committees and other leadership teams.

I will be using my CEI as a signature experience under the Community Engagement theme of the Passport to Success program.

CEI Poster