North Irving Orchestra Scholarship

1. North Irving Orchestra Scholarship Nickie Weaver, Dir. Grant Services, Dr. Alfred Green, Heather Blonco, Sam Lyle

2. The Project Children as young as eight years old come to MacArthur High School Orchestra Director Heather Blanco’s concerts and watch and listen with fascination as the music sweeps them away. After the concert, the children touch the instruments with hope shining in their eyes. Heather wants to keep connecting those hopes with possibilities. Heather dreams of the day when she will be able to once again offer special musical training for those children who show interest and ability but whose families are not able to afford private music lessons for them.

3. Irving ISD Irving Independent School District’s vision is “to be the premier provider of educational services that meets the needs of every student.” The District’s mission is to “cultivate the skills of learning, thinking and communicating.” Mastering an instrument and owning the voice of music allows musicians to communicate universally, beyond the constraints of language.

4. Other Benefits Even more, research shows that learning music can improve spatial reasoning and improve performance in reading and mathematics. Statistics show that learning to read and perform music increases standardized test scores. In fact, the students of the Texas All-State Orchestra earn higher SAT scores than any other student group in Texas; “All-State music students consistently score over 200 points higher on the SAT than non-music students, indicating that high performing students have a strong interest in pursuing serious music interests while excelling in other academic areas” (Texas Music Educators Association Survey, 1988-98).

5. Importance of Learning Music Our proof of the value of music education is verified by Dr. Alfred Green, Director of fine Arts for the Irving Independent School District; “More and more, we are seeing music educators use the value of "music for music's sake" as the primary justification with the brain research and learning theory as supporting documentation.”

6. More Reasons “Whether [music] becomes a professional career, an active hobby or a cultivated interest, they’ll always have it as a friend and companion.” “They learn the self-confidence that comes from performing for an audience.” -Time Magazine, Nov. 22, 2004, Sound of Music

7. Past Programs Irving Independent School District is a leader in educational excellence and innovation. • Recently awarded an $800,000 grant from the state of Texas to implement a technology immersion program to provide an individual computer for each student • Two other schools have recently won a 21st Century Community Learning Center grant • Another high school has recently won $150,000 to address struggling high school students

8. More Past Programs -21st Century Community Learning Center program to serve economically disadvantaged and academically at-risk students -MacArthur successfully conducted a similar private music lesson program; however, funding for the program has disappeared

9. Target Group Of the 54 students in the MacArthur High School Orchestra, sixare economically disadvantaged. At Travis Middle School, five, and at Houston Middle School, fourteen. These twenty-five children are the ones who will directly, immediately, and individually benefit from funded private lessons.

10. Instrumental Purpose The resources necessary to conduct this project successfully that are in place are: facilities, school staff, administration, private music teachers, materials, instruments, scheduling arrangements and students. Only funding is still needed--$5,250. Lesson cost: $15.00 per week Fundraising: - $7.50 per week Scholarship: $7.50 25 scholarships X $7.50 = $5,250