For five weeks, students from middle school to high school spend five hours a day learning percussion techniques and other music fundamentals. Watching them soar as drummers stirs up inspiration among their instructors.Advertisement
For Mell, this is all part of a plan to revive music programs that lapsed at schools during the pandemic and virtual learning.“A drumline would come to our school, and the feeling of the drums, the music — it just attached to me,” said Mahjoi Thomas, 15. “You get that feeling in your heart and your body, you feel the vibration.”
Under Mell’s leadership, there are now about 20 programs in district schools. Altogether, 70 students are enrolled at three schools, but Mell dreams of a drumline at every Philadelphia school. Partnerships also make it possible for students who attend to earn work-study paychecks. Brian VanHook, a West Philadelphia music teacher, says paying students is key. Some of his own students often must work to help support their families.“It provides students with an outlet to do something positive, and it gives them the opportunity to use this for college, to get scholarships,” said VanHook.