A new music program in the San Francisco Unified School District is helping open the door for students to pursue their dream careers.
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"At SFUSD, they have this career technical program where the idea is to expose students to different areas that they can go into for their career," KCBS Radio's Kathy Novak said on "Bay Current" on Thursday. "In the class I visited, there's music technology. This is a program at the June Jordan School for Equity in the Excelsior neighborhood, and the teacher received a grant from the foundation called Save the Music, which is also named the J Dilla Music Tech Grant, which provides equipment for music education."
Students at the June Jordan School for Equity are not only encouraged to learn music production and technology but they are also given the chance to create hip-hop and rap music.
"I consider myself a hip-hop artist and teaching artist who teaches at a high school," Mandeep Sethi, also known as rapper SETI X, who coordinated the music tech grant and teaches the course, said. "We teach the skills that students need to make industry-level beats, production, sound design, and songwriting, and also the music business aspect."
Some students, like 15-year-old Seth, were particularly passionate about producing hip-hop music.
"I joined this school recently because I am a foster, and I was living in Santa Cruz but then they switched me back to San Francisco," Seth said. "I wasn't expecting to do this class, but I saw the elective and I chose it because I really like music."
The J Dilla Music Tech Grant, which provides $50,000 worth of industry-level gear, has allowed June Jordan high schoolers to learn the ins and outs of the music industry and also understand what it would be like to become a music producer.
"Students come in here and are put on a two-year pathway where they learn how to be a part of the industry," Sethi added. "Eventually, after year two, they would get an internship or job in the industry and that would lead them to their career."
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