Hello! My name is Sophia Stroud and I am a seventeen-year-old jazz drummer and singer. I am raising money in an effort to enroll in a summer program at Berklee music college.  The program is a five-week music camp in Boston, MA that gives students the opportunity to fine-tune their craft and learn from some of the worlds best musicians. Donations will be exclusively used for paying my tuition, which in total is near $10,000 but I received a $2,500 merritt scholarship that will help. The financial application deadline is June 1st, but I definitely think the money can be raised in time!  Even if I don't reach my goal, knowing that people support my dreams and my budding career as a musician means the world to me. Any and all help is so appreciated! If you would like to know more about me continue reading.

It was in fourth grade that I started playing the drums, and I can only accurately describe the experience like a passage from a sappy romance novel. It was like love at first sight, or more accurately, first sound, and from the moment I picked up the sticks I knew that the drumset and I belonged together.  Suddenly, all the issues that had been holding me back were working in harmony. The things that I hated about myself and saw as flaws were now enabling me to focus in on a single instrument's part in a song, teaching me ear training and how to improvise. My sensitivity to sound and touch gave me a new kind of sensitivity on the drum set, allowing me to play with more precision, care, and intention than other middle school drummers. However, many band leaders and male drummers were slow to respect me because of this. Instead of viewing it as a valuable skill, they saw as a sign of weakness and inability, which even now, as a working high school musician, happens far too often. I am grateful for the challenge it has presented though, because it has pushed me to work a million times harder than my competitors and allows me to have complete faith that my accomplishments are purely based on my drive to succeed. The deep-rooted underestimation has been tough to tackle mentally,  but it has ultimately made me stronger in all parts of my life.

As you now know, music is my truest passion, and the opportunity Berklee has presented me with is something that, in a perfect world, I would never pass up. I am ready to work as hard as possible to get there but I don't have enough time to make it by myself. If this campaign succeeds and I am blessed enough to go, I will get as much knowledge, expertise, and experience as a possibly can in order to become a stronger, smarter musician. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you donate, thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me reach my dream. :)