This past July, Rock to the Future was transformed into a hub of creativity and professional learning in partnership with the JEVS-C2L-PHL. The Career Connected Learning Program is a city-wide initiative that provides paid work-based learning opportunities for Philadelphia’s youth. Not only were these young people paid to explore and create music with their peers, but they also learned invaluable life and professional skills through attending over 14 professional development workshops.
Both the Germantown, site hosted at Roosevelt Elementary school, and the Kensington site, hosted at Kensington Health and Sciences Academy, alternated between two weeks of music learning and two weeks of professional development after a week of orientation. Professional development workshops ranged from learning how to make healthy food choices to introduction to the basics of business, creating poetry, connecting art and technology, and financial literacy. In a summer full of highlights, here are some spotlights and takeaways:
Purposeful Transformation and Leadership Development Through Personal Narrative
Students resonated with Norman Bayard’s workshop because of his unique and humor filled approach to personal narrative as a tool for leadership development. Using his own backstory, he inspired students to get vulnerable about their stories and self perceptions and begin to consider the legacies they want to leave behind.
Healthy relationships and digital safety
Emma Halper from WOAR had students think through their boundaries around relationships and technology and they strategized around how to have safe interactions and how to respond to and combat peer pressure.
Permission to Roar podcast
In this interactive workshop, Brittanie Thomas helped students name, prioritize, and negotiate their personal values through podcasting. They “roared” and left feeling they had a responsibility to use their voices in their communities because they matter. “Something I learned is that everybody has a story of their own”. -Rock to the Future student
Afro Dance and Meditation
In Rasaq Lawal’s workshop, students had a blast learning different dance styles from the African continent- zanku and lego from Nigeria, azonto and pilolo from Ghana, and pouncing cat from South Africa. The energy was high and to end the workshop, Rasaq led a short meditation where students repeated back the following: the good in me sees all the good in you .
Mindfulness and Movement
Chinere Wright led a self-reflection journaling activity followed by a relay race where participants broke into two teams and worked together to get the hula hoop from one end to the other without unlocking arms. It was really important that we included activities that got students on their feet because finding different and enjoyable ways to move around is one of the best ways to combat stress and improve health.
mindfulness and movement workshop by Chinere Wright
16 Bars Reflection
Victoria Horne led a thought provoking workshop based on the 2018 documentary. The documentary follows musician Speech Thomas as he works to produce an album with four inmates in a prison in Virginia. Students watched clips of the documentary and talked through their understandings of the US prison system and how it affects them and their communities. The goal was to empower students with information and encourage them to lead with empathy in order to help create a more just world. At the end of the workshop, students wrote responses to the questions “what is one way we can make the prison system more just?”. Some responses included giving resources to prisoners both in and outside of jail like financial help and housing and treating them like human beings.
Expanding Futures Through Career Connected Learning
This summer was more than just a program, it was a powerful reminder of what’s possible when young people are given the space, support, and resources to grow. Through music, mentorship, and meaningful conversations, students not only developed new skills but discovered new parts of themselves. As one participant beautifully summed it up: "I learned to be myself, enjoy what I have, and be grateful for what I'm capable of doing."
Written By Alex Graham, Education Manager of Rock to the Future