Brains for Change

I came up with the concept of The Melody Project—an initiative intertwining my passion and experience with piano with social interaction—to engage and give back to my community. I spent the summer of 2024 laying out a detailed plan, determined to address the loneliness often experienced by residents in nursing homes, and I soon reached out to Karen Young at Sweet Readers—a non-profit organization connecting students with nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s through a wide range of engaging and creative activities. I shared my drive to promote intergenerational interaction and love for artistic activities, and she asked me to develop a specialized musical program for Sweet Readers, planting the first seeds of my initiative. I set out to make a difference, offering musical sessions to isolated seniors and encouraging other high school students to engage with their community. After witnessing how their spirits were lifted through the music and social interaction, I recognized the potential to scale my initiative independently as well as the often unnoticed isolation experienced by senior citizens. My goal is to ultimately use my non-profit as a vehicle to address the need to integrate music and connection into the lives of residents in nursing homes, as both transcend generational divides; moreover, research suggests that music and social interaction improve cognitive health, especially during aging. I hope to leverage my work with The Melody Project to ultimately uncover policy changes regarding the lives of senior citizens. I will use the next years of my high school career exploring policy options to address the issue at hand and those that I may become aware of through my non-profit and other initiatives I work with. By bringing together students and seniors through the power of music and social interaction, I strive to help seniors rediscover joy and companionship in the face of isolation—one note at a time.