A Soulful Summer!

The Keith R. Johnson (KRJ) Scholarship was created to honor Keith’s passion for music and education, and to provide collegiate experiences for children enrolled in SOUNDS Academy. To be eligible for this scholarship, students must demonstrate the SOUNDS Academy values of creativity, leadership, perseverance, resilience, and teamwork during their years in the program and describe in the application how they plan to continue to use these character values beyond high school.

SOUNDS Academy senior Avryana recently received this scholarship and used it to attend Camp S.O.U.L. (Students Obtaining Unique musical Levels) at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana during the 2026 summer. This is a pre-college summer camp hosted by the African American Art Institute at Indiana University. It encourages students to learn about the university while increasing their understanding and appreciation of African American culture and art forms.

“I learned a lot about African American culture and now appreciate Soul music so much more! I discovered that Soul music itself is a whole culture,” said Avryana. It incorporates so many types of music and musicians, and evolved out of just as many, including Blues, work chants, Gospel, Jazz, and more. It’s too big to be a genre.” As a member of the The Soul Revue Collective at SOUNDS Academy for more than five years, Avryana believes that this newfound understanding will help her lead the group to new heights as she completes her senior year.

She also experienced the ways Camp S.O.U.L. provides a collegiate experience. Anyone who has attended college knows how overwhelming and exhausting it can be! As Avryana discovered, “It was no walk in the park. I needed to focus. Mr. Ignoisco was teaching us. The main thing that was exhausting was walking across campus to breakfast, to practice, everywhere. Long rehearsal days. One of the veteran students said, ‘You’re going to be eating, sleeping, and drinking music.’ After a while I was so tired that I had trouble feeling the music. It was intense.” 

While the program is intense given the long rehearsals (often at least eight hours a day), lectures, and excessive walking, this intensity is evened out by the passion and enthusiasm of the teachers. Noted Avryana, “They were passionate about music and about teaching music. They encouraged us to move in the most beautiful ways and actually demonstrated how to feel the music. They were strict, but in a coaching kind of way, to help us do the best versions we could of the songs.” Avryana hopes to share and inspire that same kind of energy within her community and with other SOUNDS Academy students.

Avryana’s experience at Camp S.O.U.L. helped her realize the degree to which she will continue to use some, if not all, of the character values we practice at SOUNDS Academy throughout her life. “I used perseverance to help me through the long days, especially when I was exhausted and had to keep rehearsing. I used teamwork [when] working with people I hadn’t met before and in a brand-new environment. As long as we know how to treat others, listen, and follow instructions, we can be a team. I’ll also give leadership a mention because I saw really good examples at the camp.”

One unexpected aspect of the camp that Avryana appreciated was that faith was incorporated into some of the activities. Soul music’s roots in Gospel helped her understand it on another level as well. “Mr. Myles got us together for prayer before our performance, and I loved that.”

Avryana had the experience of a lifetime and is now more hopeful and excited about the future than ever. “This experience opened my eyes to how my future could be. I’m hopeful about this year. If anything, I’d like to help lead the band. I feel more galvanized to do projects to support my community. I met people [who] are very supportive, and I can reach out to them. I’m aware of how life could be as a musician.”

She’s a musician [who] is already becoming a leader on so many levels. Thank you SOUNDS Academy Board of Directors for creating and supporting this scholarship. Avryana is a force to be reckoned with in the best way possible. Be on the lookout for her name in lights one day!

Congratulations Avryana ! 👏🏿👏🏿