Robert Mecozzi, a music teacher at Stagg High School, said he's witnessed how the venues where students perform empower them, shaping their sound and heightening their emotional, creative and professional expression.
He said it's also pretty cool for students to say they have performed at the same place where the Chicago Symphony does.
Mecozzi, along with other music teachers in the Orland High School District 230, have taken students to perform at professional venues including the Symphony Center and nearby colleges, since 2019, and now they bring siblings of previous students to the venues.
This band project is funded by the The District 230 Foundation, which awarded a record-breaking $38,600 this year to fund creative projects and programs by teachers that go beyond traditional classroom resources, according to the district.
The District 230 Foundation Grant also awarded a wide variety of new grants this year, including an interactive math classroom, a human library to expose students to new perspectives and a student-led sustainable water management system for the school's garden beds.
The band grant, one of the most longstanding grant projects, received $4,600, the highest amount this year. Mecozzi said they plan to use the funds to book the performance hall at Wheaton College and hire guest conductor Alfred Watkins, a high school conductor in Georgia for more than 30 years who turned his program into "one of the most premier high school band programs in the country."
Watkins will work with each high school band directly before conducting their performance at Wheaton College in March.
The leader for the human library project, French teacher Nitya Viswanath at Stagg High School, said the foundation grant is vital to the district, as it has funded "so many projects that bring people together."
"It is also a space in the district that encourages multiple clubs, courses or departments to collaborate on projects," Viswanath said.
The human library allows students to peruse a list of titles instead of paperback books, each title representing a person acting as a book, ready to share their story in person. The "reader" and "book" would spend 10-15 minutes together at a shared table, where the "book" tells their story and the "reader" has an opportunity to ask questions.
Viswanath said this project is especially important because District 230 is an "incredibly diverse community in every possible way."
"We believe that we can all learn something from hearing about what someone else's life is like," Viswanath said. "We hope that this opportunity to hear the stories of others will encourage both the listening and dialogue necessary to build empathy in our community."
Viswanath lead a similar project last year with other Stagg teachers, inspired by the Human Library Organization, based in Denmark, that aims to foster empathy through listening to the stories of others. Viswanath said the event was successful in giving students a chance to hear people's experiences.
But she said the grant funding makes these events possible. The Stagg human library event will take place this spring, and those involved are looking for potential human book volunteers in the community.
The foundation funding will also support new projects including one connecting Stagg High School students to community internships and shadowing opportunities in health careers and the purchase of a new pediatric nursing manikin to provie students real time, directed feedback on the rate and depth of CPR chest compressions.
The funds also allow for an outdoor activity trip to The Forge Lemont Quarries for special education students with pragmatic language or social skills deficits, who are enrolled in the social communication resource course at Andrew High School in Tinley Park.
The foundation also awarded funds to several returning projects, such as the Utilizing Learning Tools in Meaningful Activities Woods Collective. Last year, about 50 students participated in the program, which focuses on functional academics, daily living skills, communication and sensory experience and vocational skills for students with special needs.
A veteran teacher at Andrew High School paired with a new teacher in 2023 to bring students together for a woodworking project to advocate for autism acceptance.
Students with special needs learned how to use band saws, jigsaws, sanders, laser engravers and other power tools with the help of their peers who are taking Jeff Cassidy's woodworking classes this semester.
This year, the collective will entail building charcuterie boards and cutting boards for each student involved, among other projects. After making the cutting boards, grant leaders intend to partner with high school culinary classes in order to run a bake sale and charcuterie sale for school staff to help raise awareness to the program.
"This partnership between high school woodworking students and special needs students promotes inclusivity, allowing both groups to learn from each other and appreciate their diverse strengths," read a district statement on the project.
The District 230 Foundation awards grants every year to staff at Sandburg, Stagg and Andrew high schools. The foundation has provided about $550,000 to support more than 175 projects overall, according to a statement on the District 230 Foundation website.