Hey, my name is Bryson Hughes and I am a Senior at Alexander Central High School in Taylorsville, North Carolina. One of my hobbies is listening to and making music. Growing up in a rural community, music was all around me. Wherever I went, music was there and interested me. I started actually playing music in the 6th grade when I was in the East Alexander Middle School band program. I started off with trumpet and transitioned to euphonium during the second semester. I have played the euphonium for 7 years now and I hope to play it when I leave high school. When I graduate from high school, I plan to attend North Carolina A&T University and study music. After I graduate from college, I hope to become either a musician or a producer and use music as my career. I want to give back to my community because they helped me become the man I am today. I have been using things I enjoy doing to reach out to my community about justice. One of the things I use to reach out is my musical talents. Music can bring people together and tell a story through rhythms and melodies. Many musicians have used music to talk about social justice. Some musicians are Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holliday, and many of the musicians of the Civil Rights Movement. Songs they created were about injustice and racism in the Deep South during the Jim Crow era. The songs give valuable lessons that are rarely taught in society. Another way that I reach out to my community is through a school club. I am a member of the Minority Awareness Club at Alexander Central. I joined in my 9th-grade year in 2019. My cousin runs the club and reaches out to the African American community in Taylorsville. We gave donations to charity and reached out to people in Statesville, Hickory, and Wilkesboro. Last year around Thanksgiving, we gave people in need or shut-in food for the holidays. The impact we leave on people around our community is important to me. Another group that I work with is the Alexander County NAACP. They also donate to charity and play a big part in African American communities. They host a Martin Luther King Jr. event every year in Hiddenite that gathers a huge crowd. They organize and plan events that people can attend to learn more about history. I have many family members that are also members of the NAACP. I hope that with my intended major, I can reach out to many people in the world. Justice should be for anyone and everyone that deserves it. If justice isn’t served inside a courtroom, how can it be served outside of a courtroom? The justice issue will never get solved until something’s done about it. It won’t happen overnight, but over a couple of weeks or months, it’ll get better.

Growing up, my family told me to get involved in as many things as I can when I got older. I personally feel like getting involved in community service helps you look at the bigger picture regarding your community. Many times we see small details about our community so much that we overlook the community as a whole. It means a lot to me to be able to give back to the community that helped raise me to be the person I am today. I have been using things I enjoy doing to reach out to my community about justice. One of the things I use to reach out is my musical talents. Music can bring people together and tell a story through rhythms and melodies. Many musicians have used music to talk about social justice. Some musicians are Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holliday, and many of the musicians of the Civil Rights Movement. Songs they created were about injustice and racism in the Deep South during the Jim Crow era. The songs give valuable lessons that are rarely taught in society. Another way that I reach out to my community is through a school club. I am a member of the Minority Awareness Club at Alexander Central. I joined in my 9th-grade year in 2019. My cousin runs the club and reaches out to the African American community in Taylorsville. We gave donations to charity and reached out to people in Statesville, Hickory, and Wilkesboro. Last year around Thanksgiving, we gave people in need or shut-in food for the holidays. The impact we leave on people around our community is important to me. Another group that I work with is the Alexander County NAACP. They also donate to charity and play a big part in African American communities. They host a Martin Luther King Jr. event every year in Hiddenite that gathers a huge crowd. They organize and plan events that people can attend to learn more about history. I have many family members that are also members of the NAACP. One more group that I am a part of is the youth Department at St.John Baptist Church in Taylorsville. We hold a mission every Wednesday and a Church conference every fourth Friday of the month. We discuss how we can give back to the community. So far we have done food drives, soup kitchens, and even collected offerings for sick and shut-in. We even helped the Minority Awareness Club give food to the needy and homeless for the last 4 years. I hope that with my intended major, I can reach out to many people in the world and my community. It means a lot to give back to my community because of everything that they did for me. They taught me many life lessons and gave me so much inspiration and I would like to return the favor by doing the same for the future generations of my community. I want them to go out and become leaders and spread the same message that was given to me when I was a child. I believe that it can happen, we just have to trust and help each other when it's needed.

Growing up in a rural community, I knew everyone around me. They all know me for having the characteristics of a leader. They believed that I could do great things in the future if I just stay focused on the task of getting an education. After I graduate from Alexander Central High School, I plan to attend college at North Carolina A&T and study music. When I graduate from A&T, I want to use music to impact, not only my community but everyone else that is connected to that community. The way that I would use music is by talking about issues that plague the African American community like social injustice and racism. Music can bring people together and tell a story through rhythms and melodies. Many musicians have used music to talk about social justice. Some musicians are Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holliday, and many of the musicians of the Civil Rights Movement. Songs they created were about injustice and racism in the Deep South during the Jim Crow era. The songs give valuable lessons that are rarely taught in society. Another way that I reach out to my community is through a school club. I am a member of the Minority Awareness Club at Alexander Central. I joined in my 9th-grade year in 2019. My cousin runs the club and reaches out to the African American community in Taylorsville. We gave donations to charity and reached out to people in Statesville, Hickory, and Wilkesboro. Last year around Thanksgiving, we gave people in need or shut-in food for the holidays. The impact we leave on people around our community is important to me. Another group that I work with is the Alexander County NAACP. They also donate to charity and play a big part in African American communities. They host a Martin Luther King Jr. event every year in Hiddenite that gathers a huge crowd. They organize and plan events that people can attend to learn more about history. I have many family members that are also members of the NAACP. I hope that with my intended major, I can reach out to many people in the world. Justice should be for anyone and everyone that deserves it. If justice is not served inside a courtroom, then how can it be served outside of a courtroom? The justice issue will never get solved unless something is done about it. It won’t happen overnight, but over a couple of weeks or months, it can get better.

I am passionate about music because, throughout my life, I have been around music. Growing up, I was a part of the Youth Choir at St. John Baptist Church. I would always sing when I was either alone or around people. Singing stuck with me as a child until when I got into 4th grade. At my elementary school, we would always sing, no matter the occasion. After we sang at a community event, I was curious to learn how to play instruments. The first instrument that I played as a kid was the drum. I would try to play drums anywhere I was. If I didn't have drumsticks, I would use other drumstick-like objects and a hollow pot and make all types of rhythms. I always wanted to be a percussionist until I reached the 6th grade. My middle school band director, Mrs. Watson, introduced me to the trumpet. I started playing trumpet and was very interested in playing it. I learned how to play trumpet pretty quickly which helped me through the first semester of middle school. When we returned from Christmas Break in my 6th-grade year, she asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a euphonium. I started playing the euphonium and immediately fell in love with the instrument. Ever since then, I have played the euphonium. I received a lot of honors for playing the euphonium over the years. The band director invited me to be a part of the All-County Band in my 8th-grade year. We even went to MPA in my 7th and 8th-grade year and received 2 superiors for East Alexander. My 9th-grade year was an important year with my euphonium. I started marching with my friends from elementary school and others from around the county. I was able to be in small groups and receive honors from that year. I learned a lot of new things about the instrument through my high school band director, Patrick Watkins. He has played the euphonium since he was in high school. He taught me many things that I will take with me when I graduate high school in a couple of months. When I graduate from Alexander Central High School, I want to pursue a major in Music at North Carolina A&T State University. I chose this school because of its band and musical programs. I heard them play over videos, but I would be interested in hearing them in real life. Most of the songs they play in their band program are songs that I listened to as a kid. I found it interesting that many other people go to A&T that play the baritone. I was the only one at my middle school and 1 of 5 at my high school. If I become a musician, I plan to give back to my community by hosting clinics that youths around Western North Carolina can attend. I can also create bands and invite the community to the band to make music altogether. I want other young kids to have the same experience that I had with music over the past 10 years. My community was there for me when I wanted to pursue my dreams. I want to return the favor by giving back to my community. Not just for the people in my community but all around the world. I think that everyone should follow their dreams because anything is possible. You just have to have the motivation and work ethic to make it happen.