The Young Leaders in Music Club’s mentorship program has recently returned from its post-COVID hiatus. This program provides East students with knowledge in music the chance to mentor middle schoolers in their instruments.
Mentorship between East and Phillips Middle School has long existed as a way to bridge the two music departments and inspire continued engagement in the arts. Originally, high school students carpooled from East to Phillips, but the program was transferred to a remote setting during the 2020-2021 school year. It became inactive for the two years succeeding the pandemic due to transportation and social distancing concerns.
In the fall of this year, the former band and orchestra director at Phillips, Ann Daaleman, worked to revive the program by contacting the district transportation department to arrange middle school students to be taken to East by bus every Tuesday after school. She worked with the support of Ryan Ellefsen, the band and orchestra director at East, and senior Matilda Foureman, the president of the Young Leaders in Music Club.
“It just felt natural, and I feel like I have a legacy to prevail,” said Foureman, a bass player, about continuing the program.
Foureman’s older sister had led the mentorship program in its previous years, which instilled in her a lasting enthusiasm for its benefits. All the while, she’s embraced the fact that the version of the program she’s leading now has its differences from the older structure.
“I like how it’s changed,” Foureman said. “I remember back before COVID it was very stressful, and I saw former leaders having to figure out car rides…. Having it here at East is really nice. It’s just easier and I think it allows middle school students to see what they have to look forward to and feel more comfortable around East.”
For middle school mentees and high school mentors alike, being able to learn and teach an array of skills on their instruments has been an enlightening and educational experience.
Seventh grader Polk Greer, who plays baritone and alto saxophone, appreciates the strong conversational bond that he’s forged with his mentor William Weis, due to their relative closeness in age.
“[With] my instructor and private teacher, we’re like 10 years apart, and my [mentor]’s four or five years older than me, so I think that definitely makes a big difference,” Greer said.
Maslan Bushnell, a sixth grader at Phillips who recently switched from flute to saxophone, similarly values the relationship she’s established with her mentors, Rithika Bandaru and George Wang.
“We’re friends,” Bushnell said. “I always become very good friends with people [when] one-on-one practicing.”
Bushnell hopes to audition into jazz band in high school. She appreciates the opportunity to learn from students who participate in smaller ensembles, and have had a number of years with their instruments.
“I think it’s really cool to learn from the high school kids because they’re so much more experienced and they’re people who have done their instruments forever,” Bushnell said.
Meanwhile, East senior and violin mentor Brooke Harrison said mentoring middle school students has transformed the way she thinks about her own technique.
“It’s made me more aware of my mannerisms,” Harrison said. “Teaching someone else has made me more aware of what I need to improve on myself. When I see someone doing something wrong, I realize that I do the same thing and need to correct myself. It reminds me of the lessons I had in middle school.”
Desta Fisseha, senior and trombone player, talked about her experience as a mentee when she was in middle school and how that inspired her to become a mentor herself once she reached high school.
“I was a student in the mentorship program in middle school and I loved having the high schoolers help me out into becoming a better player. We did these things called castles where it was like playing tests and the vendor actor would have you play a little passage from your book,” Fisseha said.
The skills and teaching experience gained from the mentoring process are vital to ensure success reaching higher education and self-improvement.
“I was kind of slacking off about it, but then my friend and I got into competition with it,” Fisseha said. “We kept fighting for the first chair. The best way to do that was to go to mentorship after school, because the high schoolers can sign off on your pass offs. I loved being there every Tuesday. I just couldn’t wait until I got to high school and I got to help kids out like that.”
Photo courtesy of Graham Jones/The ECHO
