Meet Scholarship Recipient, Darchelle
You may recall our article about W.O. Smith Music School. One of this year’s scholarship recipients, Darchelle Hardeman of Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet High School (MLK), is a student and volunteer teacher at W.O. Smith! When I told Lynn Adelman, Assistant Director at W.O. Smith, she was excited and had the greatest things to say about Darchelle, her talents, and her work with some of the other students. I had the opportunity to meet Darchelle at MLK recently to present her with her scholarship award. She plans to attend Tennessee Technological University this fall.
Here is Darchelle’s scholarship essay about W.O. Smith.
By Darchelle Hardeman
W. O. Smith Music School is a place for the underprivileged across Davidson county that want to learn music. They have been doing this for almost thirty years. I have attended W.O. Smith Music School since I was eight years old. The very first instrument I learned how to play there was the flute. Once I turned nine years old, I picked up the clarinet. I have taken clarinet lessons from age nine to the present. The clarinet is considered to be my primary instrument. A couple years later I joined the choir. My voice was not the best at the time but eventually progressed into the mature voice I have now. I also took on Alto Saxophone in jazz band on top of choir and clarinet. After two years of Alto Saxophone, I was chosen to play Baritone Saxophone. I have played Bari. Sax. for three years now. I started teaching my own theory class at the beginning of my junior year of high-school. I teach “Basic Musicianship” to children from the age of nine to seventeen every Wednesday after jazz band practice. I am a camp counselor at the resident sleep away camp over the summer. I have been an active member of the W.O. Smith Music School community for many years and plan to be a part of it for many more to come. W. O. Smith’s faculty have loved and supported all of the children there as their own. As long as I live I know I will always have a place there. I also know W. O. Smith Music School will continue to give young children a place to go that makes them believe they can be more than what they see around them. There have been children before and there will be many after me that will look back and appreciate what W. O. Music School taught them.
Congratulations Darchelle!
###
Help Students Achieve
Your donations help provide scholarships for students like Darchelle. By impacting young hearts and minds with scholarships, you not only facilitate more access to higher education, you also show our youth we are all in this together – an attitude that yields exponential returns for generations to come. Thank you for your generosity, and please continue to help students achieve. Please consider making a donation.
Get inspired
[mc4wp_form id=”2866″]
