Students from Roxhill Elementary had a remarkable opportunity this week to write and record their own song with a visiting hip hop artist. Sponsored by America SCORES and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) the program brought recording artist Psalm One to the school to spend time over three days working with children as they selected beats, worked on themes and ideas and finally went to a Seattle recording studio to take part in creating the final song. 32 students, a mix of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders were selected on the basis of on being good scholars and good citizens, not necessarily just having the best grades.

The group was led by Poetry coaches Kristie Stoehr, and Kenny Short as well as two soccer coaches Mark Amsden and Marissa Jenks.

Roxhill Principal, Carmela Dellino said, "This program, with the poetry, lets our children experience the joy of writing and that they truly are authors."

The ASCAP Songwriter Residency is a unique program in which songwriters give back to the community by hosting school workshops. America SCORES is a national organization with local affiliates that offers a model for youth development, targeting girls and boys in urban neighborhoods that offer few, if any, recreational programs. America SCORES Seattle works with 160 third, fourth and fifth graders in five urban, public elementary schools in Seattle’s Central District, Rainier Beach, and White Center neighborhoods. SCORES offers a comprehensive after-school program utilizing the whole child approach to youth development to promote teamwork, confidence and personal growth.

Psalm One who is on a nine city tour for the project said, "The songwriting process is something that can be as simple or complex as you make it. What's very cool to me is that writing songs with youngsters is you get sort of a streamlined songwriting process. What I learned from the kids is that you get right to the point without being super verbose(…) What attracts me to mentoring kids or giving back to kids is just the fact I'm a big kid and I've never really grown up. I look back and think about when I was growing up and my musical tastes being somewhat different than my peers, I wish I would have had somebody to come and tell me what it was like to be a real musician, not necessarily one you might see on TV."

Pre-recorded beats, prepared by friends of the artist in Los Angeles were shared with the kids on the first day with everyone voting on which one would form the basis of the final song. The second day involved asking kids what they thought about and wanted to use as lyrics. It was decided that the final track would be themed, "When I dream about soccer," which ties in perfectly with the goals of America SCORES.

On Wednesday Oct. 5 the students were taken by bus out to the Shoreline based Robert Lang Studios a world class recording facility based in an ornate home in that neighborhood.
They were taken into the primary studio space in groups as they each chanted the key chorus of "When we dream about soccer" into microphones, as the beat played through headphones they all wore. Psalm One directed the action.

When all the tracks are completed an album of all of the songs recorded with SCORES teams will be released online.

About America SCORES Seattle
Student-athletes are less likely to drop out of school, and more likely to attend college than students who do not participate in any extra-curricular activities. Yet, in the U.S., over 65 percent of urban school children do not participate in extracurricular activities involving any form of exercise. America SCORES Seattle engages children in at least four hours of soccer a week ensuring that SCORES student-athletes learn to be physically active and be involved with a team at an early age. SCORES translates the teamwork and involvement of the soccer field into the classroom engaging students in writing and community service workshops that encourage a desire to succeed.
America SCORES Seattle is an affiliate of America SCORES, There are sister programs in the Bay Area, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New England, New York, and Washington, DC. For more information visit www.AmericaSCORESSeattle.org, or our blog at www.AmericaSCORESSeattle.blogspot.com.

About Psalm One
A critically acclaimed hip-hop artist from Chicago, Psalm One is a former scientist and the only woman signed to indie power label Rhymesayers Entertainment. For more information on Psalm One check out: http://www.regularblackgirl.com/ & http://www.blog.regularblackgirl.com/