How Global Virtual Communities Can Help Kids Achieve Their Dreams | Matthew Garcia | TED

I'm a Latinx son of immigrants from a small Texas border town.

Growing up, I didn’t have access to classical music,

and I had never been to the symphony.

But I always knew that I wanted to play a string instrument.

So in sixth grade,

we got the opportunity to pick our instruments for orchestra class.

I took one look at the viola and said, "Great, that'll work."

And as I began to play the instrument, I immediately fell in love with it.

Even though my middle school orchestra director

was a fabulous bass teacher,

she could only teach me so much on the viola.

And because there weren't any viola teachers in my town,

to be able to play the things that I heard in my head,

I turned to a teacher who seemed to know everything:

YouTube.

(Laughter)

By watching countless hours of YouTube videos

of the great virtuosos performing everything from Beethoven

to the musical suite from "Star Wars,"

I tried to mimic their techniques

and incorporate them into my own playing.

With a few difficult years of practice, a lot of blood, sweat and tears

and the endless support of an entire community of people

who really, really wanted me to succeed,

I began to play in places that I'd never even dreamed of,

like Carnegie Hall,

and bring my music to audiences across four different continents.

It had been one of the most difficult learning experiences of my life,

but one that proved an important point:

anyone from anywhere can do incredible things,

if you connect them with the knowledge and resources that they need to thrive.

On my travels, I became friends with the elite young musicians

who seemed to have all the resources.

Because they lived next to musical capitals

like New York, Chicago or LA,

they studied at places like Juilliard on the weekends.

They watched their teachers perform at major symphony orchestras.

They had access to almost every musical opportunity that you can imagine

right in their home communities.

And even though I was proud of the hard work that I'd done

to get to their level,

I hated always feeling behind

because I never had access to private lessons.

So you can imagine how excited I was

when I had the opportunity to take my first professional private lesson

with one of the best violists in the world.

I just knew he'd be so excited about how much progress I'd made on my own

and encourage me to become a professional musician.

So it came as such a surprise when he told me to quit.

(Laughter)

He said kids like me who didn't start playing at an early age,

who didn't have access to private teachers and the best resources,

who didn't really understand

how the classical music industry really operated,

generally could not make it as professional musicians.

Now, classical music is incredibly competitive

and sometimes people with all the resources don't even make it.

So I'm sure he thought he was doing me a favor,

and maybe he was, but I was shocked.

It hurt.

But I didn’t want to disrespect him, so I smiled, said, “OK,” and left.

I was a 15-year-old who loved playing the viola more than anything,

but in that moment I seriously considered putting my instrument away forever.

Now I'm 21 years old

and I couldn't be more grateful to have experienced that moment of discouragement

because it opened my eyes to the fact

that for 13 million children in the United States

who live outside of major US cities,

pursuing a career in something like classical music, ballet, art,

research or many other historically exclusive fields

is incredibly more difficult, if not practically impossible.

In classical music, for example,

people of color make up only around 15 percent of America’s orchestras,

despite representing almost 42 percent of the US population.

So in some ways, I don't blame the viola teacher for telling me to quit.

Music opportunities tend to cluster around major cities,

especially the charities and nonprofits that try to help underserved students.

And I just wasn't around them.

But people have talent everywhere,

and everybody deserves a chance

to grow that talent and share it with the world.

Because when we allow people like me to systemically be prevented

from entering into these competitive fields,

we uphold the elitist and exclusionary systems

that allow so many children to be told

that they're not worthy enough to pursue their dreams.

I wanted to change that.

For many years, I had no clue how.

But when the COVID pandemic hit and our entire world went virtual,

I saw an opportunity to help others learn music online,

regardless of who they were, where they lived,

or what they could afford.

So I texted a few friends I knew from around the country

and put together a founding team.

Together we reached out to 20 other musicians that we knew

and asked each of them to teach a free virtual private lesson a week

to an underserved young student.

This meant that students like Samuel Igbo,

a 14-year-old violinist from a small town in Texas

who dreams of pursuing a career as a concert violinist,

could receive personalized musical mentorship from Nikki Naghavi,

a prize-winning violinist at the New England Conservatory.

My idea inspired and connected hundreds of people from all walks of life

to offer their time and expertise to aspiring musicians like Sam

from around the country.

And now, just two and a half years later,

this little idea has turned into Through the Staff,

a national nonprofit that has provided almost 600,000 dollars

of free virtual private lessons

to almost 1000 young musicians

from Fresno, California to Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

I didn't realize it, but I'd accidentally started a virtual nonprofit.

We didn’t just use the internet to deliver our services,

our organization existed on the internet.

Because our program was run entirely by volunteers

from around the country

who work together for a common cause,

despite never meeting once in person.

Because our students and teachers could learn from each other online,

wherever they were,

geographic boundaries no longer mattered.

This digital workspace meant virtually no startup or scaling costs.

So we've been able to grow and make incredible changes

with a budget of only 9,000 dollars over two and a half years.

It was only after I began to see this profound potential for impact

that I realized that virtual organizations

can help us better distribute educational resources

directly to those who would benefit from them the most.

And if this worked in classical music,

I figured it can work in other places, too.

This time in academic research.

When I began to explore biological research

in my second year of college,

I remember trying to find a mentor

and being discouraged to only see white male researchers.

Just like in music, this trend is systemic.

Only 15 percent of all doctoral researchers were Native American,

African-American or Hispanic.

I wanted to change that.

And I knew that the virtual nonprofit model

that I had already developed

could make a difference here, too.

I could start something that could help generations of future young researchers

break into academia.

So in 2021, my best friend and I gathered a founding team of 31 college students

and started another virtual nonprofit called the Pre-College Research Institute.

Together, we've created four 32-hour virtual research courses

that have taught, trained and inspired 160 high school students of color

from Klerksdorp, South Africa

to New Delhi, India,

to Alpharetta, Georgia.

If I could break down barriers in access to music and academic research,

anyone can do it anywhere.

That's exactly what makes virtual nonprofits so powerful.

They transcend geographic boundaries

and bring opportunities to those

who would literally never otherwise have them.

They're a new way to find and connect the world

to a huge source of untapped talent

and a necessary step to nurturing the future of these industries.

This is the future that will not only change the fabric of these institutions,

but ensure they survive and prosper for years to come.

And as more and more children are connected to the opportunities

and knowledge and resources that they need to chase their dreams,

I'm excited to see the people that lead every industry

look a lot more like the world around them.

I know this transformation can happen,

but I can't do it alone.

So if you have an idea or interest

for how to make a historically inaccessible field more equitable,

grab a few friends,

brainstorm a way that you can break down the barriers in your field

and start a virtual nonprofit.

You may never meet the majority of the people that you serve,

but the effects of your hard work

will touch them in ways that they will never forget.

Thank you.

(Applause)