Students from 10 New York City schools, including two from Queens, have been chosen to participate in a mentoring session from professional New York City-based musicians.
They include students from Channel View School for Research in Rockaway Park and John Adams High School in Ozone Park. In addition to the mentoring session, each school will receive a $2,500 grant from the GRAMMY Museum to fund their music programs.
In honor of the national MLK Day of Service, NYC Service partnered with the Grammy Museum and the Recording Academy New York Chapter to mentor 50 high school students who are looking to further their skills in their music programs. All of the volunteer mentors are New York City residents with careers in music ranging from Grammy winning songwriters and producers to engineers.
“Opportunities that connect young people to role models and adults that care are vital to achieving our goal of engaging thousands of New Yorkers as mentors,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Thank you to the volunteers for sharing your experience and career paths with our students. We know that if students have the opportunity to connect with caring adults from diverse walks of life while learning new career paths, they are more likely to succeed and reach their full potential.”
“Mentorship is one of the pillars of our educational outreach, both in Los Angeles and throughout the country,” said Scott Goldman, Grammy Museum executive director. “Many of our programs are focused on pairing music industry leaders and executives with young people who hope to one day have a career in the industry. This opportunity with NYC Service gives us the extraordinary opportunity to reach youth in New York, and we are thankful to the city for their support in helping us to inspire and educate future generations.”
The event is a part of a citywide initiative to increase mentoring opportunities for high school students in all five boroughs. Launched in January 2017, the initiative aims to establish mentoring programs in 400 New York City high schools by 2022, which would annual engage 14,000 New Yorkers as volunteer mentors to 40,000 high school students. Additionally, it supports the city’s Equity and Excellence plan to achieve 80 percent high school graduation and two-thirds college-readiness rates by 2026.
Excited to kickoff today’s #MLKDay of service with #volunteers from the music industry working to change the lives of 50 HS students through mentoring.#MentorNYChttps://t.co/SniZGWc6vM pic.twitter.com/0HNvJHipRi
— NYC Service (@NYCService) January 15, 2018
