Application for the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation Grant

Executive Summary

The St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra (SPYO) was started in the spring 2013 by high school students with the goal to create an inclusive and supportive community of musicians in Champaign-Urbana. In 2013, the group consisted of ten middle and high school students from three different schools. Since then, the group has grown to having over sixty members at a time ranging from seventh to twelfth grades and representing eight schools: Centennial, Central, Urbana, and University High Schools as well as Edison, Franklin, Holy Cross, and Urbana Middle Schools. It is the only completely student-run youth orchestra in the nation. The role the students play range from instrumentalists and conductors to arrangers and administration.

Sponsored by St. Patrick’s Church in Urbana, the youth orchestra played their first concert in the church. SPYO has performed in several churches in Champaign-Urbana. While the rehearsal spaces, performance locations, and funding comes from Catholic Church, the members of SPYO do not have to be in any way affiliated with the Catholic faith to participate.

The St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra has also had the honor of performing with bass-baritone Ricardo Herrera in a benefit concert in April of 2015. The donations acquired during this concert helped raise money for a mission trip for the St. Patrick’s Church youth group as well as the initial SPYO scholarship program. Over $10,000 were raised and SPYO was able to give scholarships to many members in order to help them further their music education.

For this reason, the St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra invites the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation to consider a grant of $10,000 to support young musicians who are passionate about playing orchestral music.

Needs Assessment

 The St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra has several material needs. St. Patrick’s Parish has graciously provided rehearsal spaces, performance locations, music stands, and funds for buying music. Aside from paying individually for their lessons, the members of the orchestra also buy or rent their own instruments. St. Patrick’s Church also allows SPYO to use their piano. String, wind, and brass instruments are reasonably affordable for their families so these instrumentalists have no issue acquiring them. Percussionists, however, have more difficulty purchasing all of their equipment due to the large range of instruments that vary depending on the piece that is being played.

Currently, University and Judah High Schools allow the St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra to borrow their percussion instruments for concerts. Because the percussion instruments belong to the high schools, other students need to play them during classes and SPYO only has limited time to practice with percussion before the concert. The funds that St. Patrick’s Parish has set aside for the youth orchestra can provide some instruments, but timpani are out of the budget range.

For the St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra to achieve its goal of providing the best opportunities it can for young people to grow in their music, one critical factor is practicing making the best music that the group can. To be successful, the orchestra music have all of the pieces necessary for the music to be played most effectively. Timpani are a key instrument to many orchestral works as they allow for many dramatics effects in rhythm, pitch, and dynamic that are important to a piece and other instruments cannot provide.

$10,000 is enough to buy a set of four Yamaha Portable Timpani. Because they are lightweight, these timpani will be able to be transported to a variety of rehearsal and performance locations for the St. Patrick’s Youth Orchestra. Once the orchestra has a set of timpani that they own, the timpani will be stored in St. Patrick’s church where they will be available for the orchestra to use during weekly rehearsals. The certainty of having the instruments will allow the orchestra to plan rehearsals more freely and the extended amount of practice time will ensure that the music that the students create is their best work. 

New SAT

Standardized testing is a large part of the admissions process for students all across the country. Tests like SAT are required by most schools as an assessment of a student’s readiness for college. Tests like this one have always been controversial because they take all of a student’s knowledge and skills and try to compile it all into just a number. While it is the most convenient way to judge all of America’s high school students by the same scale, it dismisses the fact that all people are different and can show their value in different ways. Test-taking may just not be one person’s strong suit. Even though many schools assure their applicants they take more than test scores into consideration, the College Board decided to update their SAT for what they think will better reflect college readiness.

The old version of the SAT received complaints that it was too confusing and did not reflect what students were learning at their high schools. The new SAT got rid of the vocabulary section that asked students to define obscure words. Instead, test-takers were asked to identify the usage of words more commonly used in a college atmosphere. The math portions were also deemed more relevant to college readiness and penalties for guessing were removed.

At a first glance the new SAT seems like the optimal solution to standardized testing. The re-designed SAT was announced in 2014 and for two years it was publicized like it would revolutionize the college admissions process. The first time it was administered was last month, March of 2016. In a survey, 60% of students said that the questions were straightforward and easy to follow. 85% of students answered that they preferred the new SAT to the older version. Overall it seemed to have a promising reception.

I took the SAT in March and I along with 58% of test-takers felt it was too long. But, more importantly, a lot of it was unnecessarily wordy. Yes, you expect the reading section to be entirely text-based but I felt that the math portion had also added a lot of reading comprehension to it. Many problems, like the ones involving graphs, had complex headings, labels, and answer choices with subtle differences that were meant to trick you. This kind of test could be a lot easier if your school has prepared you well but for lower income students of students that don’t speak English as a first language, the new SAT could become a real challenge.

It is expected that native English speakers should get a higher score in the reading and writing section but the math portion could theoretically be more or less equal. This new SAT leaves a group of students at a distinct disadvantage. While I do agree that it is important to be proficient in English in order to do well in college and that the new SAT has made some good steps in the right direction, the claims the new SAT would be much better for everyone seem a little questionable. All I’m saying is that the College Board shouldn’t be so quick to pat itself on the back. 

What's the difference between a viola and an onion?

What assumptions do people make about you?

People often assume things about violists. It’s the assumptions that violists are just bad violinists, that it’s the worst instrument that exists, and that alto clef is ridiculously unnecessary that causes the viola to be the subject of many jokes within orchestras. The common orchestra musician, also known as viola “haters”, are the people that enjoy spouting viola jokes and overall harassing the middle member of the string family. But, no worries, it’s all in good fun. Everyone needs an outlet and someone to pick on. I know that most people don’t really mean it. And I don’t really mean it when I pretend to get angry. But for the people who do actually believe that you can keep your violin from getting stolen by putting it in a viola case, let me explain why I chose this as my instrument.

The first instrument I played was actually the violin. I know, I know, violists are just bad violinists blah blah blah, but hear me out. Yes, I originally intended to play the violin. Yes, I decided to try the viola because my middle school was lacking in that section. But no, it wasn’t because I was a bad violinist. I sat third chair, only behind the two kids who took private lessons. I tried out the viola because of necessity but I chose to play the viola permanently because I loved it. The first time I picked up a viola, I noticed the very obvious differences it has from the violin. The only thing most people know about it is that it’s bigger than a violin. When I held it up to my chin, I liked the way my arm was stretched out and that I had room to separate my fingers on the fingerboard. The violin had always felt scrunched to me. But the sound was what I loved the most. The first time I dragged the bow across the string, the dark rich sound was something I had never been able to create on the violin. I loved the color and the fullness. It sounded powerful like great royalty and smooth like the backdrop of the night sky. It felt like with this instrument I could make people notice the mystery and presence that I could not normally emit as a scrawny twelve-year-old girl. It fit.

One of the first things I noticed when I joined the viola section is the incredible loyalty everyone displays. There is extreme loyalty to their instruments. Maybe it’s the centuries of being ridiculed and persecuted. We could probably start preaching that we’re the chosen people. I’ve noticed that violists seem to be the ones that are most dedicated to the group and come to the most rehearsals. Overall, they’re much underappreciated.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. If the viola is still not you favorite, that’s fine. We are all entitled to our own opinions. That’s what makes us individuals. If everyone had the same taste, life would be boring. There would be no reason for creative people, like musicians, and violinists and violists alike would have nowhere to play their music. I would hate to ruin the fun, so I’ll let everyone keep making jokes, and I will still pretend to get angry. But I think that the only assumption you should make about a violist is their loyalty instrument and their music. No matter how many jokes, there’s nothing that will make me change my mind. 

Perfect Moment

Do you wish you could return to a moment from the past?

Many people want to return to a moment in the past to change it. They’re embarrassed of something they did or they wish they had made better choices. I don’t think I’d want to go back to a bad moment. I try not to let regret eat me up and I believe strongly in learning from your mistakes. No, I’d want to go back to a good moment – a happy moment. I’d want to relive a moment that was perfect. That feeling is something I would like to carry with me for the rest of my life.

Lately my life has had a lot of emphasis on starting the college process. In the past few months I’ve had to do a lot of self-reflection. Many aspects of my life have changed as I grow up and in general as I prepare on moving on to a different part of my life I’ve had to prioritize. Out of all of the things that I do, I’ve had to choose the things that are the most important to me.

One year ago today, was the opening night of The Sound of Music at Uni. I was a nervous wreck before the start of the show. This was my first major role ever and I had no idea if I could handle it. I felt like if I messed up I would ruin the show for everyone. I sought comfort in one of my fellow actors. He held me by the shoulders, looked me in the eyes and said to me “You are going to do great. You are so talented and you’ve practiced. You know this. So just have fun.” And that was all it took. The show went amazingly. In the curtain call, Maria is the last to bow. That was one of the proudest moments of my life. I was so proud to see all of the people I had worked with for months waiting for me and being happy for my accomplishment. I was so proud to be able to create something so beautiful. I was proud that I had made all of those people in the audience feel something, enough to make them clap for all of us. I was proud that my family could see that I was doing what I loved. I felt empowered because it seemed that the person that doubted me the most was myself and I had proved that it was possible to do something great.

This feeling is something that I wish I could re-live every time I have self-doubt. You learn quickly that not everything you do is going to be good and that you can’t win every time. That day taught me that I have so many people in my life that want to help me as much as I want to help them. I really don’t know what I’m doing with my life and I might decide to keep making music or maybe I’ll choose a different path. But I do know that the thing that is the most important to me is to be proud of what I do. 

A Procrastinated Essay

What role does procrastination play in your life?

            I’m always late. Everyone who knows me knows that. I have the most tardies in the school. Teachers and coaches look directly at me when they remind the whole group of an early bus departure. It’s gotten to the point where my friends will invite me to things ten minutes earlier so I will be on time. While I claim that I am “fashionably late”, the truth is that it’s a problem of procrastination.

            I simply don’t leave the house on time. Logically, the solution would be to just leave more time to get ready to begin to leave the house. In theory it’s a wonderful solution – an innovation that exemplifies the problem solving minds that a lab school cultivates. However, it’s not as easy in practice. I always manage to use all of the time allotted. I set up my system: if my first class starts at 8:00, I should leave the house at 7:30 so I have plenty of time to finish printing a paper once I get to school since travel time is only twenty minutes with traffic. The plan is ten minutes for breakfast, three for teeth brushing, seven minutes for getting dressed and a couple extra just in case. Everything goes smoothly until I get distracted by an email or Facebook notification and decide it’s not a problem if I check it right now since I have loads of time to get ready. One thing leads to another and before I know it I’m knee-deep in college searches or cat videos with only five minutes left. No amount of reminders and alarms can keep me from falling down the rabbit hole.

            I try. I really do. But my priorities are skewed. I guess it’s what some people would call a hamartia – a fatal flaw. I get excited about things and I want to do them in that instant that I think about them. That’s why I read the sixth Harry Potter book in one sitting. The world needs people with energy and people that get inspired to the point where they can’t wait any longer to achieve their dreams. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough time for everything to get done and getting leaving the house gets pushed off later and later. Thankfully, I’ve been surrounded by kind and understanding people in my life. The administrator pardoned 5 hours of my tardy service. Teachers will hold the bus and extra minute. My friends still invite me to dinner. I try not to take advantage of it. I’m honestly not a malicious person. And I know that I’m wrong and that it’s something I need to fix. But not right now. I’ll work on that later. 

Mailing Memories

What’s the most memorable thing you ever got in the mail?

            

My parents always said that snail mail was underrated. They didn’t use those exact words but as a child they tried to convince me to write letters to my friends and grandparents because they would “appreciate” them. I never understood. It takes the letter at least a week to get to them and another week for you to get a response. By that time the sentiment has probably changed and you might not even want to talk to them anymore. What’s the point? I see my friends every day at school. If I have something I want to say to them I’m not going to send a letter. By the time it gets to them I’ll have six other things I want to say. My grandparents can be reached by a phone call. Letters are useless. This is the twenty-first century.

            

The only things they ever got in the mail were boring adult things that had to do with money. They got Macy’s and Pottery Barn catalogs. I suppose for adults it’s exciting to look for bargains on blenders.  Sometimes they got checks and pages and pages of coupons that we never used. But mostly, it was bills. There’s a saying on bills but I can’t remember it. Nothing is certain but death and bills. Maybe that was taxes.

            

Only during Christmastime would my parents look forward to getting things in the mail. All of our friends and family would send in their Christmas cards. As they arrived my mother would open them and read them aloud to us, showing off the creative and decorative front of the card. She would then tape them up one by one on the wall so that by December 24, the wall was covered in nativity scenes, sparkling snowflakes, awkward family photos, but mostly warm wishes from our loved ones. That was the part we all looked forward to.

One summer my best friend decided to go to camp. He told me would have no cell phone connection and no internet for two weeks. I asked him if he expected me to stay at home cleaning the house while he was off having the time of his life. He told me I could write him letters. So off he went and within three days I decided to send him a letter. I realized I didn’t know what I was doing. How do you write a letter? How do you send a letter? Is it supposed to be a formal affair? How many stamps do you use? After long deliberation I told him about how I was doing nothing and asked about his adventures. I liked the way my handwriting looked on the page.

            

I mailed the letter and all I had left to do was wait. And wait and wait. My god, why do letters take so long to get to the other person? Is this what life was like before the telegraph? Did people just spend their time waiting for their friends to reply? There is really something to be said about the impatience of our generation. After about a week I got an answer. He told me about the great time he was having. His messy handwriting switched from black ink to blue as he wrote on different days. It had the distinctive smear of a lefty.

           

It wasn’t so much what he wrote but I loved that letter. I still have it. I guess it must have been the combination of having to wait and that it was so distinctly my friend that made the letter so special. I suppose it’s the same sort of deal with handwritten birthday notes and Christmas cards. People like knowing that they’re worth the time and effort. It turns out my parents were right. There is something about getting something in the mail that makes it more effective than just a simple text or phone call. 

Boy Bands

Have you ever felt embarrassed by things that you used to like?

Like most pre-adolescent girls I also went through a boy band phase. Being the 12 year old hipster that I was, I didn't like the big bands like One Direction. I was obsessed with the smaller Big Time Rush. One Direction was and still is (kind of) the large multi-million modern British pop invasion. They had their faces in every magazine, life-size cardboard cut-outs, and world tours. Even grown women were fawning over them. By the time they were twenty they had released four #1 albums. Big Time Rush was like the more tamed and less successful second cousin. Big Time Rush (or BTR as the people who talked about them all the time on the internet and deemed it a waste of time to spell out the whole name called it) was formed by Nickelodeon for their new TV show, also called Big Time Rush. The show told the story of four friends from Minnesota who move to Hollywood to become a singing group.

I first stumbled across them while on vacation. My grandparents, while lovely people, are old. Old people take a lot of naps. Stuck inside the house on a 114 degree day in an unfamiliar city, I resigned myself to watching television. After SpongeBob rerun where he joins a jellyfish colony, there appeared on the screen the faces of four teenage boys with floppy hair and incredibly intriguing eyes. I was convinced they were calling to me.

They were living the dream. They were living my dream. Their life seemed so glamorous with all the interviews and the fame. I didn’t just want to be their fan, I wanted to be their friend. And so I attempted to connect myself with them in every way that I could. I never missed an episode, followed them on every social media, and listened to their album on repeat on my pink iPod shuffle. I begged my parents to buy me tickets to their concert in Chicago. They didn’t believe my love was real. And like all phases, the effect wore off over time. I slowly integrated different kinds of music into my playlist and un-liked them on Facebook.

I’m not just embarrassed because the music was bad or the lyrics were cliché or my brother made fun of me and now I realize he was right and I was wrong or because I spent my whole allowance on their merchandise or I believed the staged TV show was their real life. I’m embarrassed because this is the first time everyone told me not to do something and I did it anyway. Here is where I first started to become an individual and I wasted what should have been a grand and climatic moment that I would be proud of the rest of my life on four boys in their twenties who were being paid to look pretty and extract money from other pre-teen girls just like me. In trying to be different I became exactly like other people. That’s embarrassing.