EXTRACURRICULAR
DAN SEARS ’74
A Head Start on Music Appreciation
‘I had done
this sort of thing
in high school
Fpreschool classroom at Ephesus Ele-
mentary in Chapel Hill. They’re a lit-
ifteen kids sit on the carpet in their
learning disabilities often respond well to
music. She decided to try it out.
with senior
citizens, and
tle squirmy in anticipation of today’s special
visitor. But when Lauren Schultes opens
her mouth and beautiful notes of opera
music flow forth, the squirming stops and
the eyes of the 3- and 4-year-olds are glued
to her.
And Schultes, a junior business and
music double major at UNC, was eager to
help when her music professor told her
class that Fernandez was looking for students to sing to the kids.
I wanted to get
back into it.
I was so excited
“I had done this sort of thing in high
school with senior citizens, and I wanted to
get back into it,” Schultes said. “I was so
excited to be doing it for little kids this time.”
Lauren Schultes with
her new fans.
Schultes said she
was surprised that
the full-ride Kenan
music scholarship
program didn’t
include a community
service requirement;
she’s considering
building a senior
project around performing for children.
An instrumental program was scheduled
for December.
to be doing it
Everything she sings — Disney classics;
modern pop like Miley Cyrus; and the “old
guys,” as she calls them, Bach and Mozart
— holds the audience captive.
for little kids
this time.’
Lauren Schultes
These preschoolers are part of a Head
Start program that mixes special needs children, children from low-income families
and mainstream kids. Claudia Fernandez
’03 (PhD), an assistant professor in UNC’s
Gillings School of Global Public Health
and mother of one of the students, heard
that special needs kids and those with
Fernandez had more on her mind,
however, than the interaction of the kids
with music. She believes a university such
as Carolina should be involved in and give
back to the community that surrounds it.
“I thought it was important for our
University to reach out to those around us.
We plan on having three more events like
this,” including one in December involving
instrumental music.
