A problem I have overcome in my life is my struggle with depression and mental illness. This struggle has caused me to lose friends and be unable to reach certain goals. However, this past year I decided enough was enough. I forced myself to go to therapy and open up about my struggle for the first time in my life. Because I forced myself to open up, I was able to receive help for my struggles. I found that the people around me were willing to help and listen. I discovered that I was able to reach my goals with the help of some anti-depressants. Through my experience overcoming my struggle, I have discovered an incredible passion for helping others overcome their own, especially children struggling with mental health who may not have good support systems. I wish to use music, which was a huge factor in helping me deal with my mental health conditions, to help these children. This scholarship will help me pay for my education, which will help me get started in my dream field after college. I wish to work in the non-profit industry, providing free to low-cost arts education and experiences to people of all economic and racial backgrounds I am aware that this will take a lot of resources, especially money. Like music, hobbies are very important for people struggling with mental health. Hobbies can help someone have something to do and look forward to. Clubs devoted to certain hobbies can bring people together, avoiding loneliness and isolation. When thinking about how young people could find interest in philately, otherwise known as the study of postage stamps, I would consider how I could add a arts-related spin to it. I would hold contests for students to design their own unique postage stamps after they have the opportunity to study stamp designs that already exist. Students who are interested in creating art would find the project interesting and different from what they may be used to. Allowing students to use whatever material they wish to create their stamp designs would provide them with the freedom they need to fully immerse themselves in the project. Of course, the study of stamps will not capture every students attention, but by providing them with a low-stress, open-ended activity to discover something new that they otherwise may never encounter can be the perfect way to drive interest relating to philately. This sort of art class is something I wish to offer in my future non-profit for music and arts education. I truly believe in the power of the arts to bring people of all ages together and provide them with a safe space to express their emotions. This is why I need your help. This scholarship will affect not only myself, but the lives of all the future students I hope to impact positively.

My name is Rebekah Robison. I am a current sophomore in college, pursing a Bachelor’s of Music degree. My primary instrument is piano. Additionally, I am involved with my college’s SSAA choir. I have been playing the piano for 14 years, 6 of which were spent attending a pre-college music conservatory known as the bART Center for Music. The arts education I received at the bART completely changed my life. I was involved in the program all the way through middle and high school, which were some of the hardest years of my life. I began my conservatory experience a few months before my grandfather died of brain cancer. Naturally, myself as well as my family were devastated. This event took a huge mental toll on me, but through the support of my music community and my budding love of the arts, I was able to keep going. The most notable way that this experience helped me was how they continued to provide arts education during the pandemic (albeit virtually.) During the pandemic, we continued to conduct theory classes, group piano classes, personal lessons, and composition classes on Zoom. Despite losing the in person experience of making music together, our community continued to come together to bond over our shared love. For many of us, including myself, our lessons/classes on Zoom were the highlight of our week. Fast forward to my senior year of high school, and I am preparing for university music conservatory auditions. This process is a long one, full of stress, tears, and anticipation. However, I had the support of my musical community by my side. My teachers, who had watched me grow up for the past 6 years, all gave me advice, encouragement, and excellent instruction. I was pushed very hard in order to succeed, but it paid off. I am now attending Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. The education, though difficult, is an expensive I have always desired. Here at Wheaton, my piano teacher is a pianist named Dr. Daniel Paul Horn. Dr. Horn is an incredibly accomplished pianist who truly cares about his student. He has encouraged me when I was struggling with the transition to college, been a true mentor to me, and makes my lessons and enjoyable time that I look forward to every week. Dr. Horn, out of every amazing teacher I have had, has truly inspired me and pushed me to continue in a healthy way the most. I vastly admire him, and wish to be just as kind, supportive, and educated as he is one day. I truly desire to be a similar role model to another young person in their arts education journey.

I want to change people's lives. Let me explain. I am a current music student in college. Naturally, as an incredibly busy music student, I do not have the time to work and earn the money I need to pay for my education. Despite my busy schedule of practicing, rehearsals, classes, and homework, I still find time to work two jobs to earn some money to pay for my education. I have had to make some incredibly difficult decisions to fully focus on pursuing my goals as a musician, including dropping out of honors college and losing a 20,000 dollar scholarship. I have also worked very physically demanding jobs, such as working 60 hours a week as a janitor over the summer. You may be asking yourself, "Why?" After college, I want to get started in my preferred field as soon after graduation as possible. However, the music industry, especially the classical music industry, is very difficult to break into as a young person. You must know the right people, and know exactly what your end goal is and what you plan to do in the future. I have been very intentional about fostering relationships with my professors at college, and other mentors, specifically in my church, who have done things that I hope to do in the future. I have recently been looking into different internships I can do over this coming summer that can help me meet more people in my dream vocation. Now you may be thinking, "Get to the point! What do you want to do?" My dream is to provide arts education and experiences for people who may not otherwise be able to access it due to financial reasons, age, or ethnic background. I wish to start programs for all age groups that provide them with the opportunity to experience the arts, specifically classical music, which is my field of study. Additionally, I wish to foster the love of music and the arts for very young children. I want to show children as young as preschool up until the late teens that they have support and resources to explore the arts, attend the symphony, sing in a choir, visit art museums, and of course create! This lofty goal will require a lot of money and a lot of support. For the program I wish to start, I will not only have to have the monetary resources, I will have to have people on my team who know how to manage money better than I do. I will have to find musicians who are as interested in providing arts experiences as I am, and I am very blessed to know many musicians at my college who are also interested in this! I will have to find places that are willing to let us use their dance and art studios and music rehearsal spaces. I will also need to find access to instruments that students can borrow for free. I will need to find access to local inner-city schools to provide after-school programs. I have an interest in bringing this program into nursing homes and homes for single mothers. I am aware that this program will take many years to fully integrate, and I am aware that I am not yet aware of every angle I need to address. This is why I am heavily focusing on networking and internships as a college student. I am incredibly passionate about this vision. As an extremely motivated person, I will do everything in my power to see this come to fruition. This is why I need your help.

I have been in love with the arts for as long as I can remember. When I was 10 years old, my parents took me to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. I still remember the pure excitement that rushed through me when I heard the orchestra begin tuning. It was powerful, and beautiful. That was the moment I knew I wanted to be apart of that community. This desire only grew when I attended an Eric Whitaker choral concert in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The music school I attended had given my father and I 2 free tickets for the concert. At one point in the concert, the choir began surrounding the audience. I was mesmerized by the way the sound enveloped me. This experience only furthered my desire to be a part of a musical community. I am a musician. I have been playing the piano for 14 years, and am studying it as my primary instrument in college currently. I am also a vocalist, and I have been singing alto in my school’s Women’s Chorale for 2 years now. My future goals include: providing arts education and experiences for people groups who may not otherwise have access to them. This desire was sparked because of what I saw in my city growing up. I attended an incredibly diverse high school, both in terms of economic class and race. I knew many people who had a passion for the arts but were never able to pursue their dreams because of their families financial situation, or simply out of a belief that because they were not white, elderly, and rich, the arts were not meant for them. However, I firmly believe that the arts are something everyone deserves access to. In the future, I desire to work with young children who come from lower class families. I want to implant the fact that their dreams are attainable and that there are people who desire to see them succeed early in these children’s lives. To do this, I will strive to provide low cost to free arts education and experiences. Unlike other programs I have seen, the access to these resources will not stop once these children “age out.” The support they receive from the program I hope to start will continue from birth to old age. I hope to be able to provide arts education in many languages, disciplines, and levels of intensity. Children who become interested in going to college for music will be supported properly in order to succeed. Adults who have always desired to have music in their life will finally be able to experience the joy of playing an instrument, or singing in a choir. Elderly people in nursing homes will have access to musical performances, painting lessons, and the theater. My dreams are lofty, but I hope to at least pave the way for a program like this to even exist. I want to use my gift in music to enrich others lives, and offer them what I have been so privileged to receive.

Music has changed my life. I struggle with autism and bipolar disorder. For most of my childhood, these issues went unmedicated, and I received little to no help with my struggles. As a child, music allowed me to express my emotions healthily. Music got me through some of the hardest parts of my life, which is why I chose to major in music performance when I started college. Performing music is magical. The connection you make with your audience is palpable. I am always suddenly transported a million miles away when listening to a good performer. This was one of the initial reasons I chose the performance major track during my freshman year of college. When I began performing myself in high school, I fell in love with the "performing high" I got; when I felt myself get into the zone and fully focus on the music and connecting with the audience. This love of music and performance was so important to me in high school. Struggling with unmedicated and severe mental health conditions and mental disability is naturally challenging. Music and my goal of becoming a performer gave me something to work towards. It gave me an emotional outlet, a reason to keep going, and something that made me truly happy. Besides the reasons I have mentioned above, there are countless other ways that music has impacted my life. Performance intrigues me because I want to provide my audience with a short escape from reality. I desire to reach audiences of people like myself, specifically children with mental disability. Not only would I love to expose these children to music through performance, I desire to provide them with the opportunity to perform. It can be so wonderful to connect with an audience in that way, and I wish to pass that experience on to as many people as possible. The pursuit of music performance in college has been a wonderful experience. This year, I have been playing works by Manuel M. Ponce, a relatively unknown composer that happens to be from the exact area in Mexico that my mother's family originates from. The ability to diversify my repertoire and musical interests has been one of the best aspects of pursuing performance in college. Again, the discovery of new music and composers has truly re-ignited my passion for sharing the joys of music performance with everyone I possibly can in the future. Being mentally disabled has made this journey difficult, but overall, I believe the struggles I have faced have only made me more passionate about the art I pursue. I love being able to express my emotions in music, something that I have struggled with as an autistic person. Music as an emotional outlet has always been important to me, as a person who also struggles with bipolar. The musical journey I have been embarking on throughout my life truly kept me going through the hardest times in my life. My goal for the future is to pass this knowledge on to other people struggling with these mental disabilities as well.

Music has changed my life because it has given me the opportunity to express myself and the strength to power through the difficult times in my life. My music teachers throughout the years have been some of the most motivational people in my life, and I aspire to be just as influential as them one day. Through my many music experiences, I have developed the strengths of grit, determination, creativity, and empathy. These experiences have not only improved my musical abilities, they have impacted every area of my life for the better. My ambition and passion for music run deep, coursing through every fiber of my being. It's not merely a hobby or a fleeting interest—it's my life's calling, the one thing that ignites my soul and propels me forward. The thought of veering away from music feels foreign and unsettling, like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I've invested countless hours honing my craft, pouring my heart and soul into each melody and lyric. For me, music isn't just a career choice; it's an intrinsic part of who I am, an indelible mark on my identity. To stray from this path would be to deny myself the very essence of my existence, a betrayal of the passion that drives me to create and innovate. Music serves as the very heartbeat of my existence, a powerful force that has not only shaped my identity but also provided solace and resilience in the face of life's tribulations. It is through music that I have found the means to articulate my innermost thoughts and emotions, transcending the limitations of language to communicate with profound depth and sincerity. In moments of hardship and adversity, it has been my steadfast companion, offering a sanctuary of expression where I can seek refuge and find strength to persevere. In every chord, every melody, and every lyric, I find a reflection of my truest self—a testament to the transformative power of music to illuminate the depths of the human experience. It is a privilege and a responsibility that I do not take lightly, for I am keenly aware of the profound impact that music can have on the lives of others. And so, I embark upon each musical endeavor with a sense of purpose and conviction, knowing that I am fulfilling my destiny as a guardian of the harmonies that resonate within us all.