Fine Arts Programs by Jessica

Fine Arts Programs by Jessica - May 2019 Scholarship Essay

If I were given a grant of $10,000, I would use it to better the fine arts education given to the children of my hometown of Pullman, Washington.

Throughout my school years, I loved taking art and music classes. They were my favorite classes, and I always looked forward to them. Unfortunately, the classes that I loved are not getting the amazing funding that they used to because of the ever-growing town and the increasing student population. I believe that this is wrong. Kids need to be involved in the fine arts, and they need to have the opportunity to explore it, and it has been proven that fine arts education leads to happier, smarter, and more educationally rounded children and increases cognitive growth, yet most schools still do not provide sufficient fine arts education to students. Therefore, I would donate the grant money to all the schools in Pullman to be used for the purpose of expanding their fine arts education programs, such as art, theater, and music classes.

The elementary schools in Pullman are flooding with students and do not currently have the money to fund decent fine arts programs, and students are only getting to attend art and music classes once every other week, and the only fine arts classes they can take are general music, general art, and orchestra. This is not sufficient for the young children attending the schools and does not give them enough options, so I would give about half of the grant money to the three elementary schools to allow for the kids to have fine arts classes more often and start another fine arts class in each school. This is still not enough, but it’s a start.

The high school, on the other hand, has thriving fine arts programs as the school was just recently rebuilt and the programs get most of their funding from fundraisers and donations from the community. Therefore, I would not give as much to the high school as I would to the elementary schools. Less than a fourth of the grant money would be sufficient and would supply each of the programs with new materials.
The middle school in Pullman is in between the schools when it comes to fine arts funding. It has not quite hit the level of student overflow that the elementary schools have, so it has not decreased its fine arts funding yet, but it also does not have thriving programs like the high school. Therefore, I would give the last of the grant money, over a fourth, to the middle school to boost its fine arts programs and hopefully prevent the decreased funding epidemic that the elementary schools are experiencing.

Thus, I would donate the grant money to the fine arts programs in Pullman. Half of the money to the elementary schools, over a fourth to the middle school, and the rest to the high school.