Healthy Community Initiative

More than a dozen students from all three Northfield elementary schools have been paired with college mentors this spring for after-school music lessons offered in partnership with Northfield Community School. 

The mentors and mentees were matched depending on their chosen instruments (orchestra, band, vocal or piano). The 45-minute, weekly music practice sessions started March 2 and conclude May 13. The Music Mentorship program was organized by St. Olaf junior Francesca Hajj, who recruited fellow Ole musicians interested in building relationships with younger students through music.

“I love watching the students discover what they love about music and advocate for their interests and pieces they want to play,” said Hajj, a violin player who mentored a viola student at Spring Creek Elementary. “I have also deeply enjoyed getting to watch them progress and realize when they sound good. That is a joy that cannot be replicated in any other circumstance.”

Hajj received support for the program from St. Olaf’s Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement and from Healthy Community Initiative, which received a grant from the Minnesota Humanities Center to support afterschool art and music enrichment through the Rice County PRIMEtime network. 

Svoboda Center Director and HCI Board Co-chair Alyssa Melby said she appreciates how the Music Mentorship program pairs one of the college’s strengths—its music program—with a community desire to provide opportunities to its youngest musicians.

“I hope all the kids feel supported and pumped up by their music mentor to continue playing for years to come,” Melby said.

Amy McBroom, HCI’s network impact coordinator for PRIMEtime, said offering this type of free programming at Community School—in the same space where youth attend school—makes it more accessible to all youth by reducing barriers like transportation and cost. She said the grant has also supported after-school piano instruction from St. Olaf Professor April Kim as part of Kim’s coursework in her piano keyboard pedagogy class. 

Hajj is training St. Olaf sophomore Sophia Carlson to take over leadership of the program next spring, so it can continue after Hajj graduates, and they are working with the St. Olaf administration to make the program part of a class or student club. They hope to expand the number of participants and create more incentives to participate, like group outings for mentors and mentees.

As someone who self-identifies as a “perfectionistic doer,” Hajj said she has learned through the experience that it’s OK to let go of details she can’t control, and consider the bigger picture of what the program is accomplishing.

“I am thrilled at the opportunity to grow this program, rework it, and continue to go with the flow,” she said.