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June 6, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 11Oakland,
CA
Seven California parochial schools staffed by the Mission
San Jose Dominican Sisters will have full-scale music programs for the
first time next year, thanks to a $3,343,306 grant by an anonymous donor.
The grant came through earlier this year, said Mission San Jose Dominican
Sister Julie Distel, development director for St. Elizabeth Elementary
School in Oakland, one of the schools that will benefit from the gift.
The other schools are St. Joseph and Our Lady of Guadalupe, both in Fremont;
St. Edward in Newark; St. James and St. Anthony/Sacred Heart in San Francisco;
and St. Mary of the Angels in Ukiah.
According to Sister Distel, the seed money will support music programs
for the next five years, allowing the school communities to develop additional
funding sources to keep them going on a permanent basis.
Marcia Martinez, a graduate of the Dominican community’s Sacred
Heart Academy in La Canada will serve as over-all director. She will probably
be based at St. Elizabeth’s, said Sister Distel. Martinez will be
receiving training from the nationally-acclaimed Education Through Music,
“a New York program that has turned inner-city schools around,”
according to Sister Distel.
She called the windfall gift “miraculous.” The idea for it
took shape two years ago when the development directors for the Sisters’
schools met with some of their major funders for an informal brainstorming
session.
“They asked us, ‘What can we do to help you?’”
said Sister Distel. Several directors told of their dreams to have a fully
developed music program in their respective schools. This spring, the
money arrived to make it happen.
The gift means that schools will be able to set up music programs in kindergarten
through eighth grade, as well as integrate music into the curricula, she
said. “Our hope is to have kids learn three instruments by the time
they are ready to graduate, starting out with the recorder, moving into
keyboarding, and, then taking on the more sophisticated instruments such
as wind instruments and violin.”
St. Elizabeth’s in Oakland is already opening up the world of music
to its students. Last fall, junior high teachers Vikki Wojcik, Steve Williams,
Christine Dukey, and Tajma Evans, developed an elective program around
drama, choir, art and music, including the formation of a band.
Currently, there are 30 students participating in the new band.
Hedda
Hieu Nguyen is the official “tone setter” for St. Elizabeth
School’s chorus class.
St.
Elizabeth School’s clarinet section joins the other wind instruments
during the school band’s rehearsal.
