Purposely, like sports, building a team in the arts – wherein you scout out the right persons for specific/key positions in a group to help ensure winning performances – is critically important. Also, like sports… recruits may pursue a career in the arts and receiving financial assistance to do so, is a logical way to go about it. However, in several instances, recruits may seek the opportunity of a scholarship to help them pursue a non-art career: again, just like sports. Thus, the recruitment of non-majors is just as important as the recruitment of majors.
As a donor for music scholarships, you can set up an endowment, which will fund a specific scholarship you would designate in perpetuity, can help fund a current scholarship by giving a specific amount to help fund the account, or give to a general fund that will go to a wider populace of students who want to be in music. For more information on how you can donate to a specific endowed scholarship, please email Liz Ebert, Business Manager, Missouri Southern Foundation, or to give more generally, please see the links below. To set-up your own endowment, please contact Michelle Wood, Director of Major Gifts, Missouri Southern Foundation.
General Scholarship Information
To be competitive with other universities, we need to offer scholarships that will support our students in being able to perform in our ensembles and participate in our initiatives, which will in turn help us to continue to offer free admission to most of our public performances, and to build ensembles that will represent Missouri Southern positively to our Joplin-area community and beyond.
Typically, more money is offered to the student who shows the most potential, so, the more money we have to offer incoming students, the stronger and larger our ensembles will be. To sustain the kind of giving we’ve been able to offer students in the past, we need to have a collective scholarship endowment that will make about $300,000+ a year.
These scholarships go to majors who are required to be in a performing ensemble because of a degree or certificate requirement for the BA-Music, BME-Music Education, BM-Music Theatre, the BM-Music Performance, BS-Music Industry, CERT-Ensemble Performance, CERT-Music Conducting, CERT-Jazz Studies, AND minors who desire to still be a part of a music ensemble past high school as a way of continuing their love for music and being more involved in campus life.
Vocal/Choral Scholarships
Having students in Chamber Singers or Concert Chorale allows us to perform A Seasonal Choral Flourish, Masterworks Series Performance, and Southern Showcase ONSTAGE!
Athletic Band Ensemble Scholarships
Athletic band scholarships go toward a specific event – marching band (football games) and pep band (basketball games). We love being a part of the team – to support our sports colleagues and cheer them on to victory but doing so requires a great deal of time when it comes to practice and of course, playing at the game.
Marching Band
To be competitive, we need to offer our marching band members a $500 scholarship every fall to help cover the costs associated with marching. In so doing, we will be able to readily recruit more students to join us, which equates to a bigger marching band, which in turn helps to bolster team spirit. To foster a good-sized marching band – let say 150 students on the field at $500 a piece, we need to have an endowment that will make about $75,000+ a year.
Pep Band
Like marching band, pep band also needs scholarships for the same types of things, however, the size of the group is a whole lot smaller and therefore doesn’t require as much money. Whereas in marching band, the larger the size of the ensemble matters given both the size of the playing field and it also being outside where sound dissipates quickly. Pep band has a smaller space to fill sound, which is in doors. However, to foster a solid pep band of 30 will require a similar scholarship of $500 a piece, which will equate to the ability to award about $15,000+ a year.
Band Ensemble Scholarships
Having students in Wind Ensemble and Jazz Orchestra allows us to perform at a variety of other performances throughout the year like concerts, special events, and gatherings.
If you are interested giving in this manner, please select the area you would like to give by clicking on the donate link below.
