Community Service Work-Study Program

The Community Service Work-Study Program places eligible Berklee students at nonprofit and municipal organizations to serve as part-time employees. The college compensates the student employees with funds provided through their federal financial aid package, and partner organizations provide on-site training and supervision so that work experiences complement classroom learning. Examples of work-study positions include music and literacy tutors, administrative assistants, music program coordinators, and classroom teachers.

2000–2001 $11,500 2001–2002 $35,607 2002–2003 $52,265 2003–2004 $56,637 2004–2005 $59,077 TOTAL $215,086

A young music student participates in a drum circle lead by a Berklee student-employee.

Community Grant Program

Beyond the focus on providing a music education to underserved youths, the Community Grant Program awards a number of grants to nonprofit community organizations for facility use, including the 1,270-seat Berklee Performance Center. Some of the beneficiaries have included:

• Boston Public Schools
• Chahara Foundation
• Freedom House
• Inquilinos Boriquas en Acción (IBA)
• Whittier Street Health Center

Berklee's contributions to the community take many forms, yet all have the same goal; namely, creating access to its campus and activities, providing cultural forums by which various neighborhoods can come together, and incorporating the gift of education and music to enhance each experience.

1990–2000 $148,529 2000–2005 $132,895 2000–2001 $17,900 2001–2002 $29,700 2002–2000 $27,210 2003–2004 $29,710 2004–2005 $28,375 TOTAL $281,424

Berklee honorary doctorate recipient Chaka Khan performs at the Chahara Foundation's first annual Women of Soul Celebrating the Arts Concert, a fundraiser supported by Berklee's Community Grant Program and held at the Berklee Performance Center. (2005)   Photo by Phil Farnsworth

Community Concert Series

	Percussion Department faculty member Eguie Castrillo performs at O'Day Park as part of the Tito Puente Latin Music Series, a collaboration between Berklee, IBA's Center for Latino Arts, and the City of Boston ParkArts Program. (2005)
	Photo by Phil Farnsworth

Ticket donations to local public and private schools and nonprofit community agencies not only provide access to professional-level performances, but often support fundraising activities by those same agencies, as valuable raffle items.

Through collaborations with the City of Boston Parks Department, media sponsors such as WGBH-PBS and Radio One, local neighborhood associations such as the Fenway Civic Association, and other community staples such as Roxbury Community College and the Center for Latino Arts, Berklee brings high-level performance programming into the community. Annual projects over the last five years have included:

• Beantown Jazz Festival
• Jazz at the Fort at Roxbury's Highland Park
• Tito Puente Latin Music Series
• Swingin' in Mother's Rest July Concert Series in the Back Bay Fens
• Uptown Jazz Series at Roxbury Community College

Urban Outreach Performance Program

The Urban Outreach Performance Program was established for the express purpose of promoting public service through music. Designed as the college's first community service learning initiative, the program takes Berklee student ensembles to public schools and community centers to perform, promote the study of music, and encourage young people to attend college.

The President's Office of Community and Governmental Affairs collaborates with the Ensemble Department to include the Urban Outreach Performance Program as part of the Berklee curriculum. Students receive credit for their participation, and ensembles range from big band jazz to salsa to hip-hop.

The Berklee Reggae Ensemble, one of the ensembles in the Urban Outreach Performance Program, performs at the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys & Girls Club. (2004) Photo by Phil Farnsworth

Public Service Through Music Club

Every student at Berklee possesses some talent, skill, or attribute that can be employed in service to the community. The Public Service Through Music Club (PSTMC) is a student organization sponsored by the President's Office of Community and Governmental Affairs (POCGA). Its purpose is to encourage students to make positive contributions to the community and to promote music as a fundamental tool for communication and bridging cultural differences in an ever-changing society. Officially established in 1994, it continues to be an excellent way for Berklee students to give back to the community. Through volunteer performances, service to the community has included presentations to Boston-area school children, the infirm, the elderly, and the homeless.

Long before the creation of the PSTMC and the Urban Outreach Performance Program, the President's Office was sponsoring similar activities to promote campus-wide service involvement. Community concerts performed by Berklee faculty and students account for nearly 60 percent of all educational service contributions. In addition to the numerous performances held at local elementary, middle, and high schools, the college has likewise sponsored concerts at community agencies such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Veterans Shelters, the Roxbury Presbyterian Church AIDS Rally, the Boston Jewish Film Festival, National Night Out, Taste of the Fenway, Boston City Hall Black History Celebration, and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center of Boston, to name only a few.

The variety of performances run the gamut of musical diversity and provide Berklee students with a broad base of experiences. Through their efforts to give back to the community, Berklee students gain a sense of appreciation for their neighboring residents and agencies while entertaining and aiding worthwhile initiatives through the gift of music.

Berklee faculty and staff volunteers perform for young people and their families at the Boston Public Library as part of Jazz on Wheels, a collaboration between Berklee, the Boston Public Library and the Boston Jazz Society. Photo by Abria Smith

BID/BED Program

Other ongoing commitments to music education and community service are the Berklee Instrument Donation Program and Berklee Equipment Donation Program, through which the college donates instruments and musical equipment to Boston public schools and other nonprofit community-based agencies with similar missions.

Local schools and nonprofit agencies benefit immensely from this effort. Since the program's inception, Berklee College of Music has donated more than $300,000 in musical instruments and technology-based equipment. Demand for support from local schools and nonprofit agencies continues to exceed the available supply. The President's Office of Community and Governmental Affairs in cooperation with the Office of the Comptroller readily accepts the challenge of meeting the demand through careful monitoring of classroom and institutional resources appropriate for recycling.

Over the years, requests for instruments and equipment have come from a broad sector of schools and nonprofit organizations. Beneficiaries of this type include Young Achievers School for Math and Science, McCormack Middle School, Boston Latin and Arts Academies, Roland Hayes School of Music, the Learning Center for the Deaf, Roxbury Community College, Inquilinos Boriquas en Acción, Boys and Girls Clubs of Massachusetts, and the Boston Children's Chorus.

Donations have included musical instruments, public address systems, computers, recording and studio equipment, and office furniture. The schools and agencies that receive Berklee contributions provide their students or participants with access to things that might otherwise be beyond their reach. Additionally, regularly updated technology-based donations do much to help budget-crunched facilities close the gap on technology's leading edge.

In addition to the many tangible items that are donated, monetary gifts and contributions to organizations such as the Fenway Community Development Corporation, the Health Careers Academy, Dimmock and Fenway Community Health Centers, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, and sister institutions such as Roxbury Community College and Massachusetts College of Art, typify Berklee's ongoing commitment to investing in its own backyard.

1990–2000 $221,213 2000–2005 $114,026 2000–2001 $36,894 2001–2002 $23,378 2002–2003 $17,792 2003–2004 $8,351 2004–2005 $27,611 TOTAL $335,239

Photo by Phil Farnsworth