Musical connection

Muse UGA Story and photos by Stephanie Schupska

The music mentorship program started with four students who occasionally taught guitar to elementary students—and stayed small for several years. This fall, with the help of Honors Program sponsorship, it has grown to about 40 volunteers who teach middle schoolers the fun of learning to play an instrument.

It’s Tuesday evening, and John Morris hops out of his car and grabs the guitar in his trunk. He tosses a T-shirt to Jessica Thompson—the shirts are hot off the presses, an easy way to mark the Honors students as Muse UGA volunteers. They’re joined by a few more UGA students, and together they file into Burney-Harris-Lyons (BHL) Middle School.

Two days a week, Muse UGA volunteers work on the basics of guitar, piano, and ukulele with middle schoolers through after-school programs at BHL and Clarke Middle. The service organization got its start when four students partnered with the student organization Whatever It Takes, which is also sponsored by the Honors Program, and occasionally taught guitar to elementary-aged children at the East Athens and Rocksprings community centers. In 2017, UGA alumni Brendan Abernathy and Nolan Ayers took over and moved the group into Clarke Middle School. This past summer, Muse UGA gained Honors sponsorship.

The organization now has about 40 volunteers and

Photo at left: Demi Adeoye, a sophomore economics major, and Zach Rutt, a junior bioengineering major, work with Angel Pinto on finger placement on the guitar. Right, top: John Morris and Jessica Thompson teach a student how to play guitar solos. Center: Alejandra Gonzalez, a freshman studying biochemistry and English, works with a student on her keyboard skills. Bottom: John Morris shows off the ID badges—stuck to the back of his guitar—that are printed off weekly for each Muse UGA volunteer.

two locations, and reaches between nine and 14 middle schoolers at each session. “Our mission is to do mentorship through music,” John said. “It’s to get middle schoolers started and spark that passion. From a mentorship side, we just want to be ears for them, to show that we care what’s going on in their lives.”

On this rainy Tuesday, the classroom is full of middle school banter and chairs squeezed between work spaces. In one corner, students experiment with keyboard sounds while learning a few notes. On another wall, two students learn the basics of finger placement on borrowed guitars. In the middle of the classroom, a volunteer tunes two ukuleles, then a guitar, and then two violins. Near the windows, violinists practice for a holiday performance, and occasional festive notes ring out among the strumming and picking and keyboarding.

Muse UGA volunteers don’t teach violin, but all middle schoolers are welcome to attend, no matter what they play. And, if nothing else, John can tune their instruments.

John, an economics major, is Muse UGA’s vice president of finance and organizational compliance. Jessica, a Foundation Fellow, is currently majoring in psychology and statistics, and is vice president of events. Both are juniors, are working on certificates in music business, and are sound interns at local music venues—Jessica at the Georgia Theatre and John at the 40 Watt.

Jessica spent most of the session working with one advanced student who is already playing songs. He has his own guitar, an acoustic he bought for $10. It needed a lot of fixing.

“I taught him guitar solos the other day,” she said. “I taught him the scale and told him to ‘just make up whatever you want on it, and I’ll play the backing stuff,’ and he just started going for it.

Everyone stopped; it was so cool. I think that was my favorite Muse moment.”

One of Jessica’s goals is sustainable service in the community—meaning that she tries to make service more than a one-time thing. Through Muse, the kids make sure the volunteers keep coming back.

“We have a core group,” she said.

“And they really want to work with the same volunteers,” John said.

“It’s another set of reasons for people to come,” Jessica said, “because the kids are expecting you.”

An announcement comes over the loud speaker at 5:55 p.m., a last call to all middle schoolers still in the building. They move quickly, setting down instruments and grabbing their backpacks. The eight college students are a little slower, chatting while they zip instruments back in their cases. “The way we know we are doing things right is when we leave an hour of teaching and feel good about it and feel like we actually helped somebody or taught somebody something,” Jessica said. “That’s the core of who we are.”