Chapter Overview
Musical Empowerment at Wake Forest University serves children in Winston-Salem whose families would not otherwise have access to music lessons. Wake Forest University students are paired with children who attend Speas Elementary School and other local Winston-Salem schools for free, weekly 40 minute, one-on-one music lessons and mentorship. Our program provides free instruments, music books, teacher workshops, and trainings to participants, as well as any other resources that may improve the quality and value of lessons. Lessons take place in practice rooms at Scales Fine Arts Center on the Wake Forest University campus. We accept applications at the start of the Fall and Spring semesters, and lessons begin in August and end in April.
Are you a student at High Point University? Our chapter also works with HPU! Apply to be a mentor at the application below or contact us if you have any questions.
Chapter History
Over the years, we have realized that children from the community are highly interested in learning music but are deterred by lack of funding, materials, and education. Inspired by this desire, an realized the positive effect that a local music program would have, Musical Empowerment was created to provide free music lessons to kids from low-income families. The program gives children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Raleigh and Winston-Salem communities the opportunity to learn more about music and to develop meaningful relationships with college students through music lessons.
The pilot chapter originally called Carolina Music Outreach was launched in 2002 by Christine Moseley (alumnus, UNC-Chapel Hill Class of 2004) as a student organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In July 2015, the Musical Empowerment Board of Directors hired former Musical Empowerment Co-President, Meredith Richard (alumnus, UNC-Chapel Hill Class of 2015), as the organization’s first Executive Director to oversee the growth of the organization. Musical Empowerment launched its second chapter at NC State University in November 2015. In November 2016 Musical Empowerment launched its third chapter at Wake Forest University, headed by WFU students KyungMin Yoo, Sophie Leruth, Linda Sui, and Brandon Liu to extend its reach to over 160 student-teacher pairs across three chapters.
