When the Conservatory of Music and the Los Angeles Dream Center chose to collaborate on a program to invite inner-city youth to Biola’s campus to explore music, the Conservatory faculty decided that the event should be student-led, and turned to junior music education major Lindsay Reed to take the helm.
One Saturday each month, children ages 8 to 12 come to Biola for a three-and-a-half to four hour event led by Reed. The Dream Center provides transportation for the students, the Conservatory provides the facility and equipment and the music students provide food, lessons and mentoring, forming a comfortable environment in which the kids can learn and grow.
“After discussions with Jesse Kramer and Ben Kay, members of the Dream Center staff, the vision was cast for regular Biola visits for Dream Center kids who would learn about music and enjoy fellowship with music students.” said George Boespflug, director of the Conservatory of Music. “The missing ingredient was a student who had a heart for inner city kids and teaching music — enter Lindsay Reed.”
Reed explained that the faculty knew of her desire to work with at-risk youth and asked her to lead the program.
“I accepted and after roughly four months of researching and planning, with the help of many volunteers I was able to launch the beginnings of this music program in September 2014,” Reed said.
Since Reed has launched the nonprofit, entirely student-run monthly event, she has organized a full schedule for each meeting to benefit the inner-city kids attending. Upon arriving, the kids eat breakfast, provided by the volunteers. The kids then attend a private lesson, followed by a group activity, and return for a second lesson and participate in a final group activity. The kids eat a snack and play before ending their afternoon with a private concert performed by a Biola student or faculty ensemble or professional ensemble.
“Lindsay has gone above and beyond to organize monthly visits. She has worked tirelessly, prayed continuously and shed many tears of love for these kids,” Boespflug said.
MUSIC AND MINISTRY
Time and tears spent on a program that Boespflug says connects the best of two worlds. “Music and ministry — What could be better?”
Reed, along with the other student volunteers, provide the breakfast and snacks for the kids, and expressed that they provide the food from their own means because they want to see the program grow. During times when they lacked funding, donations came from unexpected donors.
Although Reed and the volunteers realize that the kids involved may not pursue careers in music, they do realize the kind of impact that music can and will likely have on their lives.
“Many of these children come from broken homes and unsafe neighborhoods in which they deal daily with situations that no child, or adult for that matter, should experience,” Reed said. “We want to offer a safe haven where they can see life outside their neighborhoods and be shown that there is more to life than what they know.”
Reed emphasized the importance of bringing people to the Biola community in order to do ministry and impact people, viewing this program as a way for the music students to be involved and use their God-given talents to minister to the kids despite the hectic nature of college. Biola students mentor through prayer and creating a stable environment in which the kids can delve into music.
BEYOND THE REALM OF MUSIC
“We are able to bring these kids to a place where they feel safe enough to, for example, finally open up about the bullying they are facing at school, their broken home lives, etc.,” said Reed. “Our goal for this program is to provide enrichment and musical as well as personal experiences that will positively affect them for a lifetime.”
With Reed, who genuinely loves music and the kids involved, and the committed group of volunteers, this program has already had a significant influence on the kids and will likely continue to do so. In fact, the students not only love Biola and the music, but the students who teach them.
“It is our hope that God will use all of us as his tools to show his unconditional and passionate love for these beautiful children,” Reed said.
On her vision for the future, Reed pictures a program that extends beyond the realm of music into areas like theatre and science, among others, to become a holistic program covering a range of topics that would involve more of the Biola community.
