Indiana

Ellie Henry put me in touch with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (MYO), and that was who I visited yesterday in Indianapolis, IN.

The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (MYO) is a youth and family development program of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  The program is designed to use the life skills learned in music instruction to engage youth in activities that discourage at-risk behaviors and keep them committed to staying in school.

You may recall from my post on RI that sometimes you simply cannot get a feel for what an organization really does by reading about them online.  The MYO is a perfect example of that reality.  I had the tremendous honor of being able to meet some of the people who make truly remarkable things happen in Indianapolis.  If you've read my post on MI already (and if you have not done so yet, this post is a continuation of what I started to write there), you know that I talked about a common theme across the organizations I visited in MI and IN.  The MYO portrays that theme perfectly.

I could write volumes about the breadth and depth of the MYO's reach with all of the things that they do.  But the overall concept is fairly simple - the MYO employs a holistic approach to ensuring that students and families are prepared to succeed.  However, let me emphatically state that while the concept may be simple, at its core lies some of the most astounding people I have ever met.  And this is very important for me to state - the success of what the MYO is able to do is in large part due to the talent, commitment, and dedication of this inspiring group of people.

I'll be honest with you - I came in to my meeting with the MYO with a completely different set of expectations of what this organization was all about.  I donated two violins to their program, and I simply thought that this was all about training students to become musicians.  Let me tell you that music education is almost an after thought for what the MYO does for the under served youth of Indianapolis.  And this is in fact a very good thing!

The MYO is really setting out to accomplish two goals.  First, it's all about engaging students to not only be better students in the academic sense, but also about showing them how to be better individuals (both personally and as contributing members of their communities).  But the MYO has realized that you cannot simply focus on the student.  In order for students to succeed, there must also be parental involvement and it was this aspect of what they do that truly impressed me.  I was fascinated to learn that many parents of the students in their program also end up learning to play an instrument.  This has a profound effect on these students and their family lives.  Now when the students are told to practice at home, they have their parents right there to provide the same level of encouragement and support.

The MYO understands that what they're doing is not to train the next generation of classical musicians, although this sometimes also does happen (I heard one story in particular that was simply incredible and inspiring).  They want their students to graduate and move on to post-secondary education, no matter what that happens to be in.  Music just happens to be, I am happy to say, the medium that they are employing to make this happen...and we all know that Music Makes Our Students Smarter ;-)

After my visit with the MYO that wrapped up this short week of travel, and in conjunction with my experience in MI, I really started to think about the similar things these organizations were doing and the impact they were having on their communities.  And that's when it really hit me.  I started my journey of giving with two very basic goals: to make it a point to visit every state in the United States; and to combine my quest for travel with my charitable ideals.  But now I am thinking about this very differently.  This is now becoming a true learning experience for me, which is a very welcome surprise.  Not only am I learning about the power of local community based organizations and how much they can accomplish, but I am also learning a great deal about myself too.  I am now starting to think about what I want to do next, after my journey of giving is over, and how I will incorporate this experience in to what I am thinking about doing.  But alas my dear readers, for that you will have to be patient and wait a bit longer before I reveal any more of what I am thinking about :-)