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At age 4, Samantha Parrish's father sat her down at the piano. For the next ten years, she would practice classically on this instrument. She learned the ukulele from her grandmother, wrote songs, and participated in musicals and a cappella groups. For Parrish, currently in her senior year at Syracuse University, music has always been a part of her life. When enrolling in her university, she knew that SU's Bandier program was her only option.
“I…came to understand the immense power of coming together and the collective energy that people bring when they listen to music and resonate the same sound,” Parrish said.
This year, Parrish founded the CrossRoads Collective as part of her Capstone project. This student-run organization bridges the gap between SU and the local community by hosting arts fundraising events for local causes. Over the past four years, Parrish has recognized the separation between campus and community and wants to instill sustainability at CrossRoads.
Parrish began building CrossRoads in the spring and winter of 2023. At the time, she was working with bandmate Ville Batra and her two graduate students to host a festival at Thornden Park to increase community participation. The group wasn't able to get all the moving parts in place because there wasn't enough time or money.
Initially, their leaders advised them to refrain from continuing with the festival despite its premise of community building. But Parrish said that moment “got the wheels turning” for her, and she spent last summer in Syracuse, laying the foundation for her vision of community involvement in the Newhouse School of Public Communication.
She started by visiting a youth center and having coffee with community leaders to better understand the Syracuse landscape. Parrish said the engagement led her to many different places and people she never expected. Then, this fall semester, while Parrish was abroad in Osaka, Japan, she began to further develop the idea for her capstone project.
“In my mind, I thought it would be a student group show, maybe a monthly fundraiser show,” she said.
She registered CrossRoads with the SU Student Association and was approved after a semester-long process. When Parrish returned to campus in January, she “really utilized” the school’s resources.
This semester, CrossRoads focused on music education and food access. Students brought free music lessons to inner-city kids on Syracuse's north side. Crossroads also had about eight SU students who taught guitar, piano and voice lessons at the Mundi Branch Library and Camillus City Youth Center.
During the fall semester, sophomore Anjali Engstrom and freshman Annie Knobloch started working with Rhonda Vesey on Food Access Healthy Neighborhoods Now to educate more SU students about food insecurity in Syracuse . After the three met, Parrish, Engstrom, and Knobloch decided to make food insecurity a part of Crossroads' mission. Mr. Engstrom, who had conducted preliminary research on food deserts in central New York, joined the organization's e-committee and worked with Mr. Parrish on how to combine music education with FAHNN's activities.
CrossRoads partnered with FAHNN to raise awareness of the lack of supermarkets on the South Side and help raise funds for FAHNN's bimonthly market held in vacant supermarkets.
“We're both very passionate people,” Engstrom said. “We are certainly creative and approach things from different angles, but I feel that our different approaches help keep each other in check and balance.”
Parrish said working with FAHNN has been a great opportunity this semester. A highlight of FAHNN and CrossRoads' partnership was his Springsteen Blues performance at the JMA Wireless Dome on April 18th. CrossRoads brought his SU student team to represent his FAHNN at the show and raised about $3,000 in donations.
“It was the cherry on top to have Bruce himself standing on the side stage at the end of the show while accosting us on stage and encouraging our efforts,” Knobloch said. “We all felt so happy that we all burst into tears, hugged each other, and then got right back to showing the audience what ‘CrossRoads’ is all about.”
We often take for granted the many things we have been given by our good fortune…giving back to the community is often not at the forefront of the conversation… And it's not sustainable.
Samantha Parrish, Founder and President, Crossroads Collective
A lifelong musician and the daughter of a chef, Parrish has always had a connection to music and food, finding both to be essential. She said her biggest lesson learned during her last semester at California State University was that everyone loves music and food.
When CrossRoads and FAHNN talk about the lack of supermarkets and how people have to shop at Dollar General to get their day's nutrition, the organizations show their support to people because they understand the need. You don't need to convince me.
Parrish said the journey leading a large team has had its ups and downs, but the opportunities have been rewarding.
“It took me a whole summer to understand what was going on in Syracuse,” Parrish said. “But a really good lesson I learned is that people are always willing to give back and listen.”
Like Parrish, CrossRoads Collective has profoundly changed the way Knobloch is viewed. Knobloch, who grew up in a vibrant city like Los Angeles, where there are issues like food insecurity, homelessness and poverty, said several projects already exist. At CrossRoads, she felt like she and her peers were starting from scratch.
Knobloch said it took a lot of patience, creativity and collaboration to work together as a team as they navigated the complexities of working in the real world outside of SU's “bubble.” Ta.
“From the beginning,[Engström]and I have been careful not to give the impression that we are trying to be 'saviors' with this project, so we have tried to work directly with the people of the city and their ideas. '' Knobloch said.
As Parrish concludes her time at SU, she hopes that through CrossRoads, people will understand that they are leaving the world a better place than they found it. She said it sounds trite, but she believes it's necessary for everyone.
“We often take for granted a lot of what we've been given because we've been lucky enough to be placed in a certain place in life,” Parrish says. “In many cases, giving back to the community is not at the forefront of the conversation, but rather an afterthought, and that’s not sustainable.”
As a campus leader, she advises her friends, especially underclassmen and those affiliated with CrossRoads, to make sure their passions are always aligned with benefiting the community in some way. . Because without them there would be no society.
“Take a leap of faith, embrace your mistakes and learn from them,” Parrish said. “The universe will keep throwing problems at you until you find a solution.”
Published May 8, 2024 at 9:27 PM
