Zoe Howard
Features Editor
Senior Rachel Clinton received an award at Yale University on Sept. 27 for her involvement in addressing societal issues in the community.
Clinton won The Yale Bassett Award for Community Engagement after completing her Girl Scouts Gold Award project that focused on the children at a local battered women’s shelter, who were predominantly African American or Hispanic. The 1736 Family Crisis Shelter, the shelter she volunteered at, is located in Torrance, where she would go each Thursday during her sophomore year to teach violin lessons.
“That whole experience of teaching the kids was enriching for me personally [because I got] to share my love for music with the kids,” Clinton said.
As part of the project, Clinton raised money to purchase violins for the 7 kids who were in the shelter at the time and wrote a lesson book so they could continue practicing and learning while she was not there. Clinton also bought more violins and music materials to leave at the shelter so the kids can continue to improve. For the second part of this project, Clinton fundraised to bring the kids and their moms to Disneyland for their first time.
“The kids at the shelter were incredibly excited,” Clinton said. “It was their first time learning an instrument and one of my first time teaching younger kids, so it was a special and memorable experience for all of us.”
Clinton received the award from the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) at Yale University. Each year, they select 15 juniors out of the thousands of applications they receive to present the award to.
“It was definitely one of the highlights of my life so far,” Clinton said. “I felt [so] honored and blessed. I was just very thankful.”
Yale University flew Clinton and her mom, Malissia Clinton, to New Haven for the ceremony held at the African American Culture House that included 12 of the other recipients of the award. The winners received a certificate and a book called Frederick Douglass Prophet to Freedom, which was written by a professor of American History at Yale.
“The ceremony itself was really an incredible experience,” Clinton said. “Just hearing how other youths are so involved in their communities inspired me to continue to stay involved and find ways to help”.
Clinton heard about the award from a friend who won the previous year and decided to apply. As part of the application, she submitted an account comprised of her experiences and aspirations, her transcript, a list of extracurriculars, leadership positions, as well as a letter of recommendation from the woman who runs the shelter she volunteered at. In April, the Center for the Study of RITM announced the winners of the award.
“A month [after applying], [the Community Response and Relations Coordinator of the shelter] emailed me and said [that I] won; I couldn’t really believe it,” Clinton said. “It’s nice to see they have so many programs to promote diversity on their campus.”
Since winning the award Clinton co-founded an afterschool music program at Costa called Music with Meaning which was inspired by her Gold Award project. In the program, she teaches violin, viola and cello lessons to kids in nearby school districts. Recently, the program got non-profit certified and Clinton hopes to start chapters at additional schools near where she attends college.
“My favorite part is getting to share my love for the violin with others,” Clinton said. “Music has played a huge role in my life for so long and I’m really grateful that MBUSD has music programs at all of its schools. Unfortunately, very few school districts have music programs like the ones at MBUSD, so Music with Meaning is a fun way for me and other Mira Costa students to address this problem.”
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