Not Throwing Away Their Shot!

Originally published on March 24, 2017 on Vunela

“Nicolas, Nicolas, ok, ok, hold on, hold on now, I’m going to embarrass you,” said the morning’s host, a cast member from the Broadway Musical, Hamilton. “Back stage you said you were so nervous. Did you see what just happened?! That’s incredible!! People out there please support this. Nicely done, nicely done, nicely done!” Wow!

It was a Wednesday morning, and I was sitting in the last row of New York’s famed Richard Rodgers Theatre. Surrounding me where three thousand high school students from throughout New York City. Like Charlie in the famed movie Willie Wonka, these young people had scored a golden ticket. But how?

These students were part of an extraordinary and timely effort to engage today’s youth in understanding US history and civics through art, music, theatre, and dance. Supported by a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, schools serving a majority of low income students agreed to participate in a unique course of study and have access to a specially designed curriculum and teaching guides, as well as hundreds of original texts through the Gilder Lehman Institute of American History. During the four to six-week course of study, students choose from one of 42 founding American figures, and they work individually or as part of a group to design an original score, poem, or skit. Each school chooses a group or a student to represent them at the culminating event — attending a matinee performance of Hamilton.

It’s a long day. In the morning, students go on stage and perform in front of their peers. Like life, there are no dress rehearsals — it’s lights, cameras, and student voice at its finest. After the students perform, members of the cast come on stage to take questions and engage with the students. “When did you first get interested in being an actor,” one student asked the cast member playing King George. “Do you get nervous before a performance?”, asked another.

After lunch, students return to the theatre and watch the performance. The actors seem energized by their young audience, the majority of whom have never been to a musical, let alone a Broadway show. They are respectful and well behaved. The performance is magnificent, as good as the critics say, and I leave the theatre drained.

In the taxi to the airport, I reflected upon what I had witnessed earlier that day. I’m still mesmerized by the students and their performances, how natural and at ease they were on that stage. The passion with which they performed, and how much energy they exhibited. It was the students who carried the day. Here they were, most of them barely seen in a country that often dismisses and under values our young people, who have so much voice and presence. I’m left transfixed by what I had witnessed in the morning. These students were incredible. I think to myself, “Rise up!”

And as the show moves west, stopping in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, thousands more low income high school students will have the opportunity to have their shot. Hundreds of teachers will see and get to know their students in ways they never have before. How many young Alexander Hamilton’s will discover their voice? Which “diamonds in the rough, the shining pieces of coal,” will stand tall, like Nicolas and know that they matter, and from whom great things are expected. In the San Francisco Bay area, where the Stuart Foundation’s offices are located, local educators and arts providers are exploring how to harness the momentum created by the show and use history, student voice, and the arts to further engage young people.

As we revel in the chance for our own golden ticket, let’s remember the power and potential of our young people. More than ever they need adults to believe in them and push them. Rise up! Let’s not throw away their shot.

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