GALVESTON — Ball High School students, still recovering from Hurricane Ike, visited with a music star Monday who encouraged them to go to college.
Nine-time Grammy-nominated R&B singer Musiq Soulchild visited the school, encouraging students to not let the devastation of Ike derail their dreams of going to college. Musiq Soulchild is an ambassador for Share the Dream, a scholarship program sponsored in part by Coca-Cola, Powerade, Kroger, 97.9-FM The Boxx, KBFB-FM, American Airlines and the Houston Astros.
“I thought that it was interesting for me and reassuring on Coca-Cola’s part to send me to the island to encourage and help to promote the Share the Dream contest,” said the singer, who grew up in Philadelphia under the name Taalib Johnson.
The 31-year-old singer, who dropped the name Soulchild and goes by Musiq, along with Darrell Argo, store manager of the island’s Kroger store and representatives from Powerade, encouraged students to apply for an essay contest, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has awarded more than 320 students with more than $200,000.
“I was at our island store five days before Ike came, and a lot of our employees lost everything,” Argo said. “Hopefully, with our partnership with the other companies, it will encourage and inspire these students that all isn’t lost, and that there’s still hope.”
After Musiq presented his speech, he was given a “Purple Reign” T-shirt from the head boys basketball coach, Jerald Temple.
Musiq told the students to not allow themselves to become a product of their circumstances.
“I had to learn the hard way that a good education is necessary,” he said. “School wasn’t that interesting to me and the curriculum at my high school just wasn’t what I was into at the time, so I dropped out.”
He said he’s now glad to be a part of this campaign to let students know education is important. He also said the election of President Barack Obama showed how important education is to the African-American community.
“I’m excited that he was elected.” Musiq said. “He has empowered and confirmed that dreams can be realized for everyone, and it’s a beautiful thing.”
The Share the Dream essay contest receives more than 5,000 entries each year. The theme this year is “Change is inevitable. How will it impact you? More importantly, how will you impact change?”
Students are invited to submit one essay of 500 words or less. All entries are due by Feb. 28.
Students can get an application from their school counselor, any Kroger grocery store or by visiting the Web site www.coca-colasharethedream.com.
