Center for Civic Innovation Director Jay Brockman, with the support of CCI, has been partnering with Grammy Award winning Third Coast Percussion (TCP), South Bend Woodworks, and several local schools on the Making Waves initiative since 2013. To celebrate the long-term partnership, Brockman was invited to attend the 2022 GRAMMY’s with TCP who were nominated for 3 awards.
Making Waves, conceived and developed by Brockman in partnership with TCP, is a STEAM outreach program that has reached over 1,000 K-12 students in the local region and has grown to include other faculty in the College of Engineering. Making Waves participants learn how to use creativity and analytical thinking by building their own instruments and composing and performing their own music.
The pandemic forced programming online, but also opened up new opportunities to create and deliver video content over Zoom. With a grant from the National Science Foundation, Making Waves was made available to over 10,000 children across the country learning at home.
In the near term, Making Waves is looking forward to doing programming with St. Joseph County Library and other local partners over the next few months.