Project Grant

Outcome No. 1 goal is that 6+ teachers and 8+ interns would collaborate and teach. We exceeded that with our record enrollment year! 7 conductors and 15 interns collaborated and taught! This was documented through schedules, staff surveys, and the program. Outcome No. 2 goal is that 5+ volunteers would assist. We also met that goal, with 7 adult volunteers assisting. This was documented through schedules, staff surveys, and the program. Outcome No. 3 goal: 80+ students learned new music, played together, developed their skills, and continued in their orchestra programs. We had 128 orchestra students who attended camp! This was a record year for attendance! There was a concert at the end of camp including combined orchestras as well as leveled orchestras, in which the students played the new pieces they learned during the week. According to student survey responses: almost all of the students learned new skills and/or developed existing ones. Around 94% students felt that, beyond the new music they played, they either deepened existing skills at camp or learned new skills (see enclosed Survey Data). Almost all of the students who have the opportunity to play in a school orchestra will continue to do so (some students are homeschooled, a few play in band or sing in choir in school and do their string playing in lessons or youth orchestra outside of school, and some do not have this opportunity at their school depending on grade level, school, and district). This was evaluated and documented through registration, attendance, the final concert, and student surveys. Outcome No. 4: 150+ community members attended the final concert. The Apollo stage audience seats were full, with additional seating opened up in the back. We estimated from an audience count and parent surveys that 300+ community members attended the final concert. Outcome No. 5:15+ scholarships were awarded to students in need who attended camp. We awarded more scholarships this year as a proportion of a larger enrollment, distributed primarily through orchestra teachers in the area, but also through Community Ed and camp staff to students not served by a school orchestra program. We awarded 20 full and partial scholarships due to high demand this year, documented through camp registration and attendance. Our goal is that any young musicians who would like to attend the camp and learn should not be held back by financial constraints. Outcome No. 6: 15+ students participated in the free lessons program for individual mentorship, and continued in their orchestra programs. We did not meet this outcome fully. Teachers, students, and families requested a high number of scholarships rather than a high number of lessons this year. We partially met this outcome, with 7 students receiving lessons from camp staff, and all 7 of them will be continuing in their school orchestra programs. This was documented through assignment schedules and completion surveys by the teachers providing the lessons and by the students receiving the lessons. We also have partially met the completion survey requirement because some of these lessons are still in progress due to scheduling and communication difficulties. We recognize these issues as areas for improvement for next year, and have begun working on solutions to improve in this area, such as better advertising, translating the informational materials into more languages, having a more flexible format for the lessons, and providing more structure at camp for the lessons to take place. We also will be revising our outcomes next year to work toward measuring more skill development.