When Bienen Prof. Maud Hickey founded Arts and Music Programs for Education in Detention Centers in 2012, she had no idea it would blossom into the program it is today.
Hickey said AMPED started with only five student members whom she already knew. Today, the program boasts membership of between 15 and 20 NU students, fifth year music education Ph.D. candidate and AMPED Program Coordinator Patrick Horton said.
“I grabbed my music education and music students that I knew and asked them to be volunteers,” Hickey said.
The Bienen-sponsored program creates a sense of community through music composition for students at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, Horton said.
Hickey said the motivation for creating AMPED stemmed from the goal of extending outreach through music.
“I wanted to reach out to non-traditional spaces and see if composition creativity was just as powerful as in traditional spaces,” Hickey said.
Horton said he joined the program in 2018 as a music education graduate student. He volunteered, working with students to cultivate connection through various mediums of music, he said.
Collaborating with the Center for Civic Engagement, Horton said he meets with and vets student applicants for the program. He also said he manages the recruitment process and presence at student organization fairs.
SESP senior Matthew Dallalah said AMPED was among the programs that drew him to Northwestern. He added that he stumbled upon AMPED on the student organization website before applying to NU and wrote about it in his “Why Northwestern” essay.
“As someone who wants to go into civic engagement, is very passionate about music, this was right up my alley,” he said.
The process for launching the program was relatively straightforward, Hickey said. The temporary detention center was in search of an enrichment program to fill elective programming, and it had conveniently secured a grant from Chicago Community Trust, a philanthropic foundation based in Chicago. Hickey’s conversation with the principal laid the groundwork for AMPED’s inception.
Sheldon Frazier, the new assistant coordinator for the program, said the program encouraged him to marry his passions for music and civic service.
“It resonated with me in a way that I think is really valuable for members, not only of the Northwestern community, but also members that are incarcerated to be able to collaborate with one another,” Frazier said.
To prepare for working with students at the detention center in January, Horton said student mentors attend four mandated training sessions led by AMPED leadership in fall quarter.
AMPED is granted a 75 minute slot each Saturday to work with students at the detention center, Horton said. Hickey said sessions typically start with a warm-up circle to acquaint everyone and then transition to the lesson for the day.
Students’ final projects are their own tunes, ranging from spoken word poems to original rap songs.
Frazier said the season culminates in a listening party where students premiere their original songs, typically arranged on GarageBand. For Horton, the celebration allows AMPED members to celebrate their shared success.
“There’s just so many people that have all these different perspectives about music and working with incarcerated people and it’s really powerful,” Horton said.
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