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Bradley Students 'Bringing The Beat' To Peoria's Proctor Center

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Four Bradley University seniors have launched the “Bring the Beat” program to add music to an after-school program at the Proctor Recreation Center.

Emma Knaup and three other Bradley public relations and advertising majors are beginning the program designed to bring music into the curriculum of students of Proctor’s DREAM2 After-School Program.

"We have been reaching out to some different nonprofits, and Proctor actually reached back out to us, and told us that for their DREAM2 Program, one of the main components that they felt like was lacking or felt like there was a gap was the music education portion," Knaup said.

Two Bradley alumni, Pierre Paul and Jamal Stevenson, were recruited to instruct students through the month of April.

"The first half is going to focus on vocalization, music notes and scales. And then the second half of the scales is going to focus on songwriting, putting words to music, rapping, and things like that," Knaup said.

Knaup said the goal of this campaign is to hopefully host these music classes at Proctor regularly, but also expose students to as much musical education as they can.

"Obviously with coronavirus, a lot of those after-school programs that kids might get involved in aren't happening as normal, and a lot of those kids might not even be exposed to proper music education," she said. "Music is such an important part of getting a well-rounded education."

Learn more about the DREAM2 program or the campaign.

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Olivia Streeter is an intern at WCBU. The Illinois State University student joined WCBU in 2020.