Berklee Online and BreakFree Education Collaborate to Offer Music Courses to Incarcerated Youth

Berklee Online and BreakFree Education Collaborate to Offer Music Courses to Incarcerated Youth The partnership began with an initiative called the Unsung Songwriting Contest.

By

Berklee Online

February 24, 2022

Berklee Online has teamed up with BreakFree Education to help incarcerated youth learn and create music in online courses offered by Berklee. BreakFree Education is a nonprofit that provides educational solutions to students who are incarcerated, and has built the technical infrastructure to make the partnership possible. To date, BreakFree has served more than 50,000 youths across the US.

Music is huge for our students, says Kat Crawford, technology innovator for BreakFree. If they can't hear it, they'll make music themselves, either by tapping a pen, or singing all the lyrics to a song, or getting a whole group of people to sing together. So there's really no way to turn music off in this space.

The partnership began with an initiative called the Unsung Songwriting Contest, which Crawford developed. She created the contest to provide incarcerated students with a curriculum to help them learn how to write and produce their own protest song.

I remember laying in my cell, just thinking, reminiscing

Y'all wouldn't understand cause ya'll ain't in my position

What ya'll know bout ramen noodles, only thing that's in the kitchen

I still think about you every day, I hate the way I'm livin'

-First-place winner's song, R3M3MB3R

Michael Moyes, assistant vice president of enrollment strategy and operations at Berklee, heard about the Unsung Songwriting Contest through BreakFree founder David Domenici, and expressed interest in a scholarship program that would allow the winners to take Berklee Online courses.

It was something that was always on my mind, that there are incredible musicians who ended up in the prison system, often because of circumstances out of their control, says Moyes. They have the skill, ability, and talent, and just need the opportunity.

Knowing that the scholarship recipients are in a different situation compared to most students, Moyes mentors them along the way, and pairs them with understanding instructors.

Five winners were chosen, out of 54 entrants, and then BreakFree coordinated with the teachers from the winners' schools and recommended a good fit for the Berklee Online course.

Brotha told me gotta watch who I be ridin' with

I didn't listen now I'm back up in the fire pit

They throw me in this cage

and they expect a change

but it only made me worse and y'all the ones to blame

-Second-place winner's song, How I Feel

Being incarcerated gave me nothing but time to soak and grasp the foundation of music and its language, said one student about their experience studying with Berklee Online. It was an interesting learning experience and made me realize how much more there is to music besides rhythm, melody, and what's heard by ear.

Crawford and Moyes plan to keep expanding this partnership, with hopes of offering more collaborative opportunities between students at different facilities across the country. We are so honored that Berklee Online is helping students with a passion for music continue to pursue their music education, says Crawford. We can't wait to see the long-term impact this program could have on our scholars.

Listen to a YouTube playlist of last years top five winners.

About Berklee Online Founded in 2002, Berklee Online is the premier innovator and largest provider of worldwide music education, offering more than 75,000 students from 144 countries the renowned curriculum of Berklee College of Music, at a fraction of the cost. Through Berklee Online's award-winning online courses, certificates, bachelor's, and master's degree programs, students receive expert music instruction and emerge with the skills to exceed the demands of the music industry.

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