Over the years, Samford’s Commercial Music program has created many opportunities for students to build careers, learn about the industry and pour back into the community.
The Sing Me A Story Foundation is one of the ways that these students are able to interact with and use their music to create a safe space for many different groups of people. This global foundation was created to help children who have serious illnesses to express their creativity and give them a sense of normalcy in a difficult life through unique interactions with musicians.
Steven Potaczek, one of Samford’s music professors, teaches an Applied Songwriting course where he exposed four of his students to the Foundation.
Students Eli Huskey, Kacie Bell, Josie Lackey and Eliza Coleman all participated in this project and were able to use their songwriting abilities to bring the stories written by the children to life.
“The project combines the power of storytelling, music, and compassion — connecting young songwriters to children around the country in an unforgettable way,” said Potaczek in his press release.
Potaczek’s goal for this project was to expose these musicians to things happening in their community and for them to experience real-life situations.
His goal for exposure to real-life situations aligns closely with those of the Commercial Music program that works to encourage students to apply the things that they learn in their classes.
“Opportunities to benefit the world around us are a part of that [‘experiential, real-world educations’], and I’m grateful for students who are just as passionate about making a difference as the faculty is. What better way to express our humanity as a program than by collaborating with and blessing children in need,” said Potaczek.
Eliza Coleman, a junior, said her favorite part of participating in the project was being in a space where she could grow as a musician and songwriter.
“You can’t really understand how to write for a child because you are so used to writing for adults. So I think it was just fun to challenge myself,” said Coleman.
Eli Huskey, another junior, loved working on this project because he got to work with the imagination and creativity of children.
“I definitely could see myself coming back to this [project] in the future. I love that I got to write a silly song and that it’s going to be shown to the kid,” said Huskey.
In order to put together this project, they used the state-of-the-art studio one afternoon on Samford’s campus to record the melodies and vocals for these songs.
The songs are to be submitted to the Foundation’s website this week where they will be sent to the children that the songs were written for.
Arts & Life Editor
