Amadeo ’25 shares their appreciation of music with children by partnering with Lifting Hands to offer music lessons and a digital musical keyboard for the students to learn with.
Over the course of the summer, I have been working with non-profit organization Lifting Hands, which aims to educate and prepare children and adolescents living in extremely limited economic conditions. Lifting Hands offer a number of courses that aim to prepare their members for their futures. Such courses include English language and literacy, mathematics, and cooking. Nonetheless, they used to lack the resources to start a music program. As a pianist, I was motivated to help Lifting Hands gain necessary resources in order to open musical education programs. I was able to use my CSGC Summer Grant to purchase a quality digital musical keyboard, along with a room speaker and microphone.
I was fortunate enough to work with a group of children aged 7-10 who expressed interest towards an introductory music event. I showed them the basics of music in an engaging way, teaching them about rhythms using games, and going over the differences in pitch and tone by experimenting around with the 200+ sound options incorporated within the keyboard. I also showed them the power music can have over emotions, playing them different melodies and encouraging them to, with their eyes closed, visualize pictures in their imaginations based on what they felt. It was incredible to see the engagement and enthusiasm in each of the students. I am grateful that the CSGC Summer Grant allowed me to help Lifting Hands start developing more music-related projects and initiatives, and I hope to keep working with the foundation in future years with the hope of helping the music program grow.
There were a number of challenges and setbacks I faced during this whole process. Initially, it was hard to coordinate and plan with leader members from the organization. There were multiple sessions the leaders and I had planned in advanced, which had to be cancelled at the last minute because the foundation closed on those specific days. Although I wish these setbacks had not led to less sessions given from me throughout the summer, I hope to keep working with the organization to help them establish a stronger musical program in the future.
I am very grateful that the CSGC allowed me to pursue this service initiative, and I hope to keep serving the Deerfield and larger community in various ways.