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Building Bridges Through A Cappella
After eight weeks of practice, followed by an impressive performance in front of their entire school, a group of middle school kids believed they could fly. Most in the group had never sung publicly before, yet they energized a room full of students and teachers with the school’s first-ever a cappella concert at Elm City College Prep Middle.
The Duke's Men of Yale performing at the 2008 Future Diversity Conference
This remarkable achievement was made possible by an unusual collaboration among Elm City Middle, The Duke’s Men of Yale, and the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School.
Elm City College Prep Middle, an Achievement First
charter school, educates around two hundred fifty students in grades
five through eight. Selected by blind lottery, 99 percent of Elm City
students are Black or Latino, and 75 percent qualify for free or
reduced lunch. Elm City seeks to “prepare students for success in
college and in life.’ Until the Duke’s Men came along, Elm City Middle
did not have music as part of its program.
The Duke’s Men’s relationship with Elm City Middle grew out of their
performance at the conference on the Future of Diversity and
Opportunity in Higher Education in December 2008. As part of the
agreement to hire the Duke’s Men to entertain at the conference, the
Center asked the Duke’s Men to create a partnership with a school in
New Haven. The Duke’s Men took up this commitment with great
enthusiasm. Twice a week after school, college students from the
Duke’s Men gave a group of Elm City middle school students their first
taste of college a cappella. By the end of 8 weeks, a new group was
born – the Elm City Kool-Aid.
This collaboration provided an
opportunity for both the pupils at Elm City and the students at Yale to
create a powerful bond. Through their shared passion for music, the
experience connected the kids to each other and to a group of “cool”
college students. The middle schoolers had the chance to learn and
have fun with each other and their successful college neighbors. In
the process, they developed new self-expression and self-confidence.
They also saw college in a new light. It was more than the fulfillment
of the community’s expectations. It could be time to discover their
voice, pursue their passions and have fun in the process! The Yale
students connected with a world beyond the classroom and felt a deep
satisfaction in making a difference in their community.
This
collaboration reflects a theme of the Center: to develop (and, in the
process, study) partnerships with differently resourced institutions
that build capacity and community on both sides of the relationship.
The Duke’s Men of Yale/Elm City Middle partnership also illustrates the
power of collaboration as a strategy for learning and transformation.
In a cappella, the music cannot happen without intensive collaboration
among a group of people who are passionate about what they do. The
process brings out and blends the distinctive talents of each
participant. Except for the newest members, everyone in the group takes
on some major responsibility for the group’s leadership. The whole is,
without a doubt, greater than the sum of the parts.
A cappella is also inexpensive. All it requires is sharing the resources, and a way to sustain that commitment over time. Susan Sturm,
founder of the Center, imagines every college a cappella group across
the country reaching out to a public school in its community and
offering this opportunity for partnership. She hopes that this is the
beginning of a beautiful relationship.
