Newswise — Two Elizabethtown College students and two faculty members will travel to South Africa during Spring Break, taking with them 47 wind instruments to create a music program in a rural school.
Karendra Devroop, assistant professor of music and director of music education, and Michael Roy, assistant professor of psychology, will accompany senior music education major Kim Sandifer of New Market, Md., and junior psychology major Laura Getz of Mechanicsburg, Pa., to South Africa. The trip is the culmination of the South African Music Project, which began in November when Sandifer approached Devroop about serving as advisor for her Honors in the Discipline project. A native of South Africa, Devroop had always wanted to give back to his home country and impact the lives of students through music. Subsequent discussions with Sandifer and the passion they shared about making a difference in the lives of South African students led to the development of the South African Music Project.
The Elizabethtown group will take with them seven used wind instruments. The other 40, which had been collected by music education and psychology students, had previously been shipped to the school, which Devroop chose from several proposals he had received. That school, located in Pietermaritzburg, has about 1,300 students, 370 of which have lost one or both parents. Students live either with an ailing grandparent or they are homemakers, meaning they live by themselves, according to Devroop. "They live on one solid meal a day and walk about 30 to 45 minutes each way to school," he said. "Almost all students are faced with extreme poverty."
In addition to instruments, the effort has provided the school with books, music stands and supplies. "We managed to secure everything we need to establish a fully functional concert band of approximately 50 musicians," Devroop said. During their visit to South Africa, the team of four will teach the school's students and music teachers how to sustain and continue to develop the program after their departure. "The principal at the school is very excited and so are the students," Devroop said. "We will spend an entire week teaching students from 8 a.m. until 5p.m. The principal of the school has invited all the other principals in the area in addition to several education officials to witness the establishment of the program."
The group will also spend a significant amount of time conducting research on the impact of the program. That research will lead to three separate psychology of music studies, which will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals in the United States and in South Africa and will be presented at local and regional conferences by faculty and students.
According to Devroop " a native of South Africa and recent addition to Elizabethtown's faculty " arts education in South Africa was eliminated from public schools in the aftermath of Apartheid. "Thirteen years ago, the then newly formed democratic government removed music from school system," he explained. "Today, there is little to no music education in the public school system, yet motivation to make music on the part of that country's students is extraordinarily high. The current shortfalls in education " coupled with the devastating impact of AIDS, high unemployment and crime in the country " make this project a beacon of hope for students wanting to study music. And this is an excellent opportunity for Elizabethtown's students to experience another culture and advance their own professional knowledge and skills."
The South African Music Project is being completed in partnership with faculty from the University of Kwazulu-Natal and Pretoria University, both in South Africa. The project is being sponsored through a Collaborative Interdisciplinary Scholarship Program (CISP) grant from the College. Created through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, CISP offers financial support for interdisciplinary scholarship projects undertaken jointly by teams of faculty, students and professional staff. CISP is administered through the Elizabethtown's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, Elizabethtown offers its 1900 students more than 50 academic programs in the liberal arts, sciences and professional studies. Driven by its motto to "Educate for Service," Elizabethtown centers learning in strong relationships, links classroom instruction with experiential learning, emphasizes international and cross-cultural perspectives and nurtures the capacity for lives of purpose.
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