Nicole Parsons

The Rotary Club of St. Thomas enjoyed having Nicole Parsons of the U.S. Virgin Islands United Jazz Foundation. Nicole with her musician husband and Virgin Island legend, Deon Parsons started the foundation in 2013 and it was set up to bring music to the less privileged students of the Virgin Islands. Nicole explained that Jazz is a perfect way to help young people use all the parts of their mind as the music has a free formed style based on rhythm and beats. Nicole believes that she is a "Social Engineer" and by bringing music to the young, it will help develop social skills that will come in handy as they grow up and seek employment etc. Some of the goals of the foundation are to; find talent, develop curriculum in the schools, grow social skills and develop confidence in these young promising students. Nicole ended her presentation with a video of 3 young students who have gone through this program and now are professional musicians performing in the United States. In the video the students spoke of joining the school band to "just to do something" and one student stated that he "picked the horns because he could sit in the back of the class." Needless to say that the mentorship of this program gave these students focus, confidence and the skills they needed to play music as a profession.