{"id":120347,"date":"2021-05-27T12:50:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T16:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=120347"},"modified":"2021-06-11T10:54:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T14:54:36","slug":"ucf-professor-gives-gift-of-music-to-underserved-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-professor-gives-gift-of-music-to-underserved-students\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Professor Gives Gift of Music to Underserved Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
For Chung Park, music was his saving grace.<\/p>\n
Raised by a single mother along with two siblings in the big city of Chicago, the UCF Symphony Orchestra director began going down a dead-end path in high school. Life at home was chaotic, and he didn\u2019t like school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt aimless,\u201d he says. \u201cMy compass wasn\u2019t focused in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was until his music instructors helped guide him back on track.<\/p>\n
Park is now an associate professor of music, director of string music education and director of symphony and chamber orchestras in the College of Arts and Humanities. But beyond his day job, he\u2019s also the education coordinator of A Gift For Music, a local program under the umbrella of A Gift For Teaching, founded on the idea that all children should have access to the life-changing benefits of a quality music education regardless of their socioeconomic status.<\/p>\n
All the kids that A Gift For Music serves attend an Orange County Title I elementary, middle or high school or qualify for free or reduced lunch.<\/p>\n
For Park, this program is personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the power of music,\u201d he says. \u201cIt can keep kids in school who may otherwise fall off the map.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past four years, he\u2019s spent most of his Saturdays conducting free orchestra practice for about 100 students. Behind the scenes, though, he\u2019s orchestrated much more; he\u2019s also created a seamless pipeline from UCF to A Gift For Music.<\/p>\n
He teaches college students and then places them in instructor roles in the program, where students learn how to play string instruments. It\u2019s a win-win; students earn pay and real-world experience, and the organization has an endless pipeline of eager instructors who help expose the younger students to college \u2013 something that children from underserved communities don\u2019t always have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chance to learn from Chung and give back to A Gift For Music is one of the reasons I\u2019m going to UCF for graduate school in the fall.\u201d \u2014 Cesar Olmeda<\/p><\/blockquote>\n