Youth Venture

My team is made up of myself and two dedicated musicians. We all wish to give back to the community with out knowledge of music.

Hi guys, my name is Ryan Shaw, and I am one-third of the team known as Music Education 101. I chose to create this team back in September of 2008, when I decided to make a difference in my community. The concept for this Venture came from a necessity for a school assignment. For our last year of school, we must do a project that includes our passion, and benefits the community. This Venture was the brainchild of necessity, and desire to improve my community.
The philosophy on which my school stands does not provide students with classes. We instead find something we are passionate about and pursue it. We explore the community, looking for mentors and opportunities to learn about our passions. We research online and in libraries for projects that we create with assistance from an advisor, one person who guides our learning all four years of our academic career. We have exhibitions every quarter, where we stand in front of a jury of teachers and peers and show our work. We have LTI's, where we learn about our passions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, during school hours. This school is called the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, or the Met for short. I am a student at this school.
My plan is to create a class will teach students to read music, to create music, and better understand the framework on which some music follows today. It will also give musicians who aren't classically trained some way to acquire this knowledge free of cost.
In the MET, we are expected to find our own education. I wish to offer it to students within the MET, free of charge. Because there is currently no class, there is a large student community within the Met that is musically inclined but are unprepared for college as musicians. My class offers the means to acquire these skills and experiences. It will be an intensive course, much like a college course, but with an additional creative curriculum. This class will give students a better ability to harness their creative energy with purpose, and the ability to read music at an adequate level.
There is no way I could teach 15 people the fundamentals of music education without help, so I thought of the best people I could to assist me in the project. These individuals are friends, band mates, but most importantly, dedicated musicians. They are Stephen Costa and Steven Laurendeau. Both of these individuals are dedicated to bringing the class to people in school who need it most.