FINAL PROJECT:

My final project ended up taking the form of student music performances at The Nottingham in the Borer Memory Life Community. I spent a lot of time recruiting students to perform, communicating with employees at The Nottingham, and working out logistics in order to make these performances come into existence.  While my modest goal was to only do one performance, I easily accomplished that with our first performance in early March. However, there was so much support and interest in my project that we had another one in late April (with twice the number of student performers!), and one in early June. These performances were not only beneficial for the residents who loved the music and that fact that young people were performing it, but also for the students, as it was some students' first solo or small group performance opportunity.

Another instrumental part of my capstone research which wasn't formally included in my final "project" was my volunteering with Music & Memory. Music & Memory is a non-profit organization which provides personalized music playlists to people living in long-term care facilities, often to individuals who have dementia or Alzheimer's Disease. I was the first high school volunteer at The Nottingham branch and was able to recruit a few other students to volunteer as well. The people I met through the program were simply wonderful and some of the kindest people I know. If you want to directly become involved in this cause, I would highly suggest reaching out to InterFaith Works about becoming a volunteer with Music & Memory.