Music as a Global Resource: - International Council for Caring ...

SECTION:
Music for Sustainable Community Development
COUNTRY:
United States of America
PROJECT:
PROMOTING RESILIENCY AND POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT WITH AT-
RISK STUDENTS: MARIACHI PROGRAM
DESCRIPTION:
There are obviously great needs among the school children in the US, particularly those
categorized as at-risk. Fifty-four percent of students in K-12, Texas public schools, who have
been identified as ―at-risk,‖ are primarily Hispanic. One strategy for reaching these students is
using a music program centered around Positive Youth Development based on the principles of
authentic community engagement, cultural competence, and an ethics of caring.
Since 2003, Mariachi Águilas, an ensemble for undergraduate and graduate students at the
University of North Texas, has been creating relationships with local middle and high school
students in public school mariachi programs. This ensemble learns and performs culturally
appropriate music at a high-level, performing for UNT functions, community events, and private
functions. Several of the members have been teaching in after-school mariachi programs in
middle and high schools in the North Texas area. These students have been trained as culturally
aware music educators. In addition, UNT offers a Summer Mariachi Camp in which these
predominantly at-risk Hispanic public school students come to campus, stay in the dorms for four
nights, attend mariachi workshops all day, visit the recreation center, planetarium, and other
University centers, and perform in a concert at the Performing Arts Center.
The guiding framework of this program is building trusting relationships and the necessity for
reciprocity in which all participants are valued.
The mariachi program promotes community engagement as a process that contains elements of
shared benefits and reciprocity in which all parties learn from each other. By realizing that music
making and all interactions are meaningful within specific social and cultural contexts, this
perspective differs considerably from ―outreach.‖ As such the program improves community
members‘ self-worth by valuing the cultures they bring with them and promotes opportunities for
collaboration among the community, UNT students and faculty.
Goals include, but are not limited to, the following:
Improving school attendance, retention rates, academic performance, graduation rates and
college attendance among at-risk students
Providing opportunities for improved self-esteem, resiliency, self-worth, self-expression,
and discovery of individual competencies
Making better connections between UNT and the local community, by reaching out to
populations that are typically not interactive with the university
To better prepare undergraduates to work more effectively with culturally diverse
populations
CURRENT STATUS:
Mariachi Aguilas is a well-established ensemble in one of the largest university music programs
in the country. It has established strong relationships with local public schools. In summer, 2010,
they are offering our third summer mariachi camp and attendance is expected to double. In
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