University musicians’ fundraising plea for innovative project
A PLEA to raise thousands of pounds has been made by musicians from the University of Chichester to fund the final part of an innovative collaboration which involves a class of high school students from a disadvantaged area north of Los Angeles.
The Don’t You Quit event happening this month has been organised by five undergraduates and Dr Laura Ritchie, Chichester’s National Teaching Fellow in Music, to encourage students to change their lives and engage through music.
University musicians are hoping for donations for the final stage of the year-long project which will see them perform alongside their Californian counterparts at a unique concert in the Yosemite Valley among thousands of campers.
The programme is part of an on-going open-source learning initiative: a new educational practice which encourages learners to gather and exchange openly-licensed learning materials to deepen their learning and be designers of their own life-long curriculum.
Dr Ritchie said: “It used to be that learning happened in classrooms, behind closed door, but in today’s connected world that idea is absurd – we learn better together in the open.
“Don’t You Quit aims to help students from the Righetti High School, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds, to show that when someone believes in you, and you are allowed to find your feet, you can change your life for the better.
“All of the students involved, on both sides of the ocean, now believe in themselves, and it is different from just sitting in class, and different from someone else, like a teacher, telling and expecting you to do something.”
In open-source learning, students work with teachers to create research and materials for their own learning while using social media and online blogs to interact with each other.
The Don’t You Quit project has, for the past year, seen the undergraduates from the Chichester visit the Californian school via virtual connections to encourage the students to work with music, encourage, and bring about positive change in their lives.
Dr Ritchie added: “Each of the Chichester students has funded their own travel, but we need just a bit more to document the whole educational project.
“We are asking everyone to donate just one dollar via our Kickstarter – that’s just 68 pence in the UK – to ensure not only that we can help these students to share our skills, giving them confidence and experience, but also that we can share our story more widely through a documentary about the whole venture.”
The Chichester students, under the guidance of Dr Ritchie and Righetti teacher David Preston, who coined the open-source learning term, will perform from Saturday 22 to Monday 25 May to coincide with US Memorial Day weekend.
The concert, which will include a range of well-known songs, including folk, reggae, and collaboratively purpose-composed music, will be recorded by the University of Chichester students and released as free mp3 downloads.
Righetti teacher David Preston added: “The idea that a student can create an opportunity for other students to join internally renowned musicians and people from around the world is open-source learning at its finest.
“Every single donation will go to this masterpiece, other student masterpieces, and college education in general, and every little bit helps.”
A fundraising website has been launched for people to support the project while there is more about Don’t You Quit on its website.
Alternatively for more about the work of Dr Ritchie go to www.lauraritchie.com or see the project’s YouTube channel.
