The soon to be statewide club “Young Washington” hosted a concert sponsored by KBCS radio featuring four performers in the Bellevue College cafeteria on Tuesday, June 7. Young Washington is a new club which was founded by its president Trey Jordan a couple of months ago. Jordan described the goal of the concert was “to raise awareness for Young Washington and the scholarship called Young Washington’s Next Best,” which the club will be offering to students soon.
“Young Washington is all about getting together,” stated Jordan. He explained that “class wasn’t really something I was interested in,” when he was a student. Participating in student programs made him realize that “what was important to me in the working world was the networking.” With his club he wants to bring this idea back to students and teach them that the people around them are really important to their lives. “My goal with Young Washington is to grow it into an inclusive group that attracts large number of college students in Washington, as well as young adults who have taken the initiative to start a career or trade early,” explained Jordan. The short-term plan for Young Washington is to grow the community at Bellevue College and throughout the Eastside as well as to start regular club meetings on campus.
The idea behind Young Washington’s Next Best scholarship is to support whoever will be the next best in their specific field. “Applicants will write an essay detailing how they are working hard now and why they think that they will be the next doctor, lawyer, actor or whatever else it is that they pursue,” Jordan clarified. Young Washington will choose winners and give quarterly scholarships to the students. The opportunity is open to every student and applications will be accepted until the end of summer. Young Washington will give as much money in scholarships as they receive from donators. In order to raise money, the club is in the process of reaching out to local businesses and foundations and will also have fund raisers on campus, Jordan explained.
For the concert last Friday, artists from Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue played at BC. According to Jordan “they each represent the different upbringings and styles of the members of Young Washington, students of BC and people who live here in the community.” Among these artists was the Grammy nominated, American music award winner Will Jordan who has written songs for popular artists like Nicki Minaj. Another contributor was Paris Alexa, who stated that she “could hum before she could talk.” She was invited to the event by Jordan who is friends with her brother. Dave Rule, president of Bellevue College happened to be around for the event and congratulated Alexa on her performance while eating some of the free pizza that was offered during a break at the event.
David Joseph of KBCS attended the concert which the radio station helped to sponsor. He said that KBCS supported the event because it was about music and a scholarship at the same time. “We will support all student clubs which are doing something positive,” Joseph emphasized.
Artists were on stage for a time period of three hours and while they were singing, students could come up and ask Jordan for information on the scholarship. BC student Sid Sharma heard about the event and sat in the cafeteria to listen to the performances. “I used to sing at home a lot,” he explained, “raising awareness for educational issues with music is great!”