Mar. 2, 2022 | by Kaijeh Johnson Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were murdered about two months apart in 2020. As the social climate of America rapidly declined, so did my hope and faith in humanity. The quarantine of 2020 was probably one of the darkest moments in my life. As students, as citizens, and as a community, our world was turned on its head in more ways than one. Social relationships, careers, performances, events were all put on pause. Sitting in the miserable quiet isolation gave me time to dwell on the pain that the deaths of Taylor and Floyd caused my community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I not only lost hope and faith, but I also lost the will to fight. When I attended the healing circles and community conversations at Homewood in June of 2020, I realized that many of my colleagues had also done the same. The spirit of my community was broken. However, I couldn\u2019t remain in this state of hopelessness. I acted and reached out to numerous professors across the country, who specialized in African American Studies and Race Relations, and asked them a very layered and complex question: where do we go from here?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The summation of the responses delivered a very clear theme: \u201cStart with where you are.\u201d Almost every response I received had some variation of this sentence. These brilliant minds placed importance on the small interactions that one has daily. They explained how you don\u2019t always have to think outside the box or perform the extraordinary to make an impact on the communities you belong to. Instead, use your current position in the world and daily social interactions to make that change. I took this to heart, and a series of three core Professional Studies courses at Peabody provided by the Breakthrough Curriculum<\/a> presented a unique opportunity to make use of this knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After some thought, I was inspired to create Second Movement<\/a>, a virtual music education resource website. This project combines my appetite for shifting today\u2019s social climate with my love for music education. I used the information I gathered from my previous conversations to create a program that took advantage of the current relationships I already maintained. I was able to use my position as the Black Student Union President along with my placement in the Howard County Public School System to establish long-lasting connections, relationships, and collaborations to develop Second Movement. All I needed was the means to see it through. In the last course of the Breakthrough Curriculum, Pitching Your Creative Idea, <\/em>my instructor Alysia Lee<\/a> coached me through the process of grant writing. I learned how to create a budget, business design plan, and pitch, how to assess impact, and how to follow through with my plan. The grant writing process was seamless with the help of the LAUNCHPad<\/a> office. Upon the completion of the course, enrolled students could apply for the Peabody Launch Grant<\/a>. I (along with four of my colleagues) was awarded $5000 to make my project a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edited by Carolyn Dzul<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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