You may have heard of the Foundation’s next Community Service Award recipient, or perhaps you may have heard him perform. This student dedicates his talent and time to music and community service – musical community service being his favorite. As part of the Harmony Bridge Performance Group, this student joins a small musical ensemble that offers community outreach, particularly to senior community members. While playing instruments at a local retirement home, he saw the residents interacting with the music and said, “I fell in love with community service after playing for the Harmony Bridge performance group. . . seeing the impact that music can make is inspiring to me, and keeps me going back.”
According to one of his teachers, in 28 years of teaching, he is “one of the top three students” they ever had the pleasure to work with and “one of the most charitable. . . . always ready to lend a helping hand for anything.” He helps music teachers make videos for the beginning band students, tutors students in music as well as math, and most recently, he created the musical underscore and sound effects for the high school play production, Alice in Wonderland. Another teacher said he is “the kind of student that may only come along in your career once, or perhaps twice if you're lucky.” She called him “one of the most extraordinary humans that I have had the privilege to teach,” his humble and kind nature making “every exchange with him one of the best parts of the day.”
You may know him as President and Treasurer of the Class of 2022, President of the National Honor Society, President of the Spanish Club, and the Treasurer of National High Club. In addition to his leadership roles, he has participated over the years in Varsity Cross Country and Varsity Tennis, has served as a Camp Invention Leadership intern, volunteered for the Conservatory Art Show, the Trumansburg Library Book Sale, was a High School New Student Orientation Group Leader, and participated in Karate Community Service. You will also find this student on stage with the Running to Places Theater Company, playing clarinet with the Cayuga Chamber Youth Orchestra, or teaching private music lessons.
As he says he “likes to explore every nuance of every field,” which he says “feels like a lot of work, but in the end, it is so rewarding.” In April 2020, he enrolled in a certificate program with Berklee Online, the online school of the Berklee College of Music, where he studied music with students around the globe. Now, he serves as a volunteer mentor for Berklee Online. This fall, he plans to pursue a Bachelor of Music in Saxophone Performance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Congratulations to Xander Dawson!
