 photo by Steed Media Service
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ATLANTA- The kids at M. Agnes Elementary School were rocking today when Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Ne-Yo stopped by to present them with $30,000 to help fund a new instrumental music program.
Teaming with VH1’s Save the Music program, Ne-Yo, who is an ambassador for the program, encouraged the group of excited youngsters to consider the importance of music and actively apply it to their lives.
“Everybody knows reading, writing and arithmetic are very, very important, but you take away the music and the art classes and you’ll have a bunch of very smart but very boring and bland kids and adults,” he said.
The singer said that the music programs that were in his schools throughout his childhood helped shape him into the musician that he is today and attributes the arts to making him a “better person.”
“Music is not what I do,” he said emphatically. “Music is who I am. If you cut my arm right now, a song note might come out. To take arts away from school, just doesn’t make any sense.”
Students also had an opportunity to ask the star some questions about his career and advice for their own lives, which Ne-Yo was only too happy to answer.
“I think the kids see me and see that anything is possible,” he said. “I come from the same place they come from and look where I’m at now. If I can make it, they can make it.” –j.h.
