Woodhaven High School

The sound of inclusion is echoing through the halls of Woodhaven High School, through the school’s United Sound program - a national peer mentoring initiative that uses music to remove barriers and foster social change.

United Sound at Woodhaven is led by student president Alex Vazquez and vice president Miles Gawrych. Every high school that is part of the organization has both a president and vice president who set up the activities and plans for the students. The United Sound program pairs 32 student mentors with 13 students with disabilities, giving them the opportunity to learn, practice, and perform music together in a meaningful and collaborative way.

“It’s a unique experience for them,” said teacher Sue Mackinowicz. “Typically, they don’t participate in band, but they were in the winter concert, and they’re still talking about it. They’re thrilled because they get to have and hold something - an instrument that’s theirs.”

Two to three mentor students are assigned to new musicians. These band students go through a training program where they learn strategies for teaching the new musicians how to read music and play their instrument. The peer mentors are responsible for writing out an adapted part for their new musician to play which is tailored to fit their ability level; playing off of their individual strengths while minimizing areas they may struggle in. They meet together one to two times a week depending on the schedule to practice. 

A key partner in this musical journey is Detroit Harmony, a citywide initiative led by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in partnership with local arts nonprofits, schools, and community groups. Detroit Harmony donated a variety of refurbished instruments to the program, including: two drums, five bell kits, three trumpets, one baritone, three clarinets and a tenor saxophone.

These donations are part of a broader mission: to ensure that every Detroit-area student has access to a high-quality instrument. Since its inception, Detroit Harmony has collected and refurbished over 3,200 instruments for students across metro Detroit — with more than 1,300 distributed just this week.

As Woodhaven students learn their new instruments and prepare for future performances, the impact of United Sound is already resonating. 

“Everyone can participate,” Mackinowicz said. “That’s the beauty of it. It’s about making music — and memories — together.”

Student mentor Ava Gutowski said the concept of United Sound was attractive to her. 

“An opportunity to help someone learn how to unleash their creativity is one very personal to my goals in the future,” said Gutowski. “I love seeing my learner accomplish something that we’ve been working towards, and it feels like we really hit a huge goal, even if it's something relatively minor. Being a student mentor has really opened my eyes to a way of benefiting the community in teaching my peers new things. United Sound has also built life-long friendships for almost everyone involved including me.” 

Band teacher Brad Faryniarz echoed the sentiments that the relationship between the students is one of the most important parts of this program. 

“While performing and learning to read music and play an instrument are great parts of this program, I think the best part is the relationships that are formed between the new musicians and their peer mentors,” he said. “This program runs once to twice a week during the school year, but it is very common to see peer mentors walking with and talking to their new musician mentees in the hallway and hanging out outside of class. Many of the groups form friendships that extend beyond the band room. The new musicians get to be a part of something that traditionally has erected barriers to entry, while the peer mentors gain valuable leadership skills, teaching experience and the satisfaction of helping others.”

All of the practices together this school year will culminate in the spring concert on Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at Woodhaven High School. The students will play “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” from the movie Toy Story, together onstage.