Emory Startup Spotlight: Greater Boston Music Outreach

Greater Boston Music Outreach is a student startup run by Wilson Hsu. It is a program for underprivileged kids that pairs them with a mentor and teacher who are older students in Boston. These students serve as someone who teaches their mentee music but also supports them in their endeavors.

Wilson Hsu had been taking violin lessons since a young age and as he grew older, he realized how expensive and inaccessible music lessons were. He found that each music lesson costed over $100 so he thought to create a program, which allowed students to have beneficial opportunities and resources to allow them to learn music. In an attempt to make learning music available to everyone, Wilson started regionally and decided to create Greater Boston Music Outreach.

Wilson began by recruiting students from his music school to help participate in this program in their free time. He found students who were passionate about teaching and education and brought them on board. Once Wilson had a group of musicians, he paired them up with students at a local school. Each of the younger students had a teacher and a mentor to help them learn music. At the end of one-on-one sessions, all the students would come together for group lessons. Wilson’s aim was to create a community where not only older students could be teacher, but they could also help the younger students in other ways and develop a mentorship.

With the help of his mentor, wonderful friends, and fellow musicians he recruited to start the program, Wilson Hsu has provided students with the opportunities and access to learn music in his local area. He is currently trying to expand and start this program in other communities.

He has been working on this startup since his senior year of high school and passed it down to one of his trusted musicians in the Boston community. However, he still serves as a mentor/advisor and is continuing to work on the program from Atlanta.

Written by Muskaan Adnani

Emory Entrepreneurship & Venture Management | IQ Magazine Director