World We Dare - Pitch

Musical Academics Scholarship Trust

I’m about to graduate from college, and yet I feel more trapped than ever. A degree that was supposed to open up opportunities for me ended up trapping me within four walls of 6-figure student loan debt. The only way I will possibly be able to repay that is to join the corporate machine that the degree trained me for, and be a cog in it for the rest of my life. 

You may be thinking – didn’t this guy have a choice? He put himself in this situation. That’s true – I did have a choice, and I made my decision to pursue a business degree with the reality that faced me coming out of high school. While I would’ve loved to pursue higher education in music, wanting to make it myself and find a stable income to support my family were two things that had a much lower chance of happening with a music degree. 

Pay a quarter of million dollars for a six-figure job straight out of college, or the same price for economic uncertainty. 

It was hardly a choice for me, and the same situation faces countless other prospective students passionate about both academics and the arts. That’s why I’m excited to introduce you to MAST: the Musical Academics Scholarship Trust. MAST’s mission is to allow students with both musical and academic ambitions to pursue both, without having to make the tradeoff between financial stability and pursuing their dreams. 

MAST will do this by providing scholarships for dual-degree programs spanning a musical and academic discipline. Upon getting selected, high school seniors will be connected with universities offering competitive programs in both their areas of interest, and be offered a full-ride to the university they choose. These dual degree programs will give students a longer time in university to balance exploring their passions with an academic course of study, finishing both degrees in a 5-6 year program. This offers promising students the ultimate level of flexibility to pursue music, with a strong academic degree as a backstop should things not pan out. 

Not only will MAST change the trajectories of its students' lives, but MAST also represents a strong investment opportunity for AMDP. To be associated with MAST, universities will pay the organization an annual membership fee, as well as a royalty calculated as a percentage of each accepted students’ tuition that MAST will end up covering. As universities nationwide continue to learn about MAST and see it as a competitive advantage in marketing their schools, the lucrative potential of an investment in MAST will only grow. 


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