Chester Upland School of the Arts

In 1994, Associate Professor of Music John Alston founded the Chester Children's Chorus with the hope it would imbue young people with the joy of learning through music and performance. His efforts to expand upon the successful model of the Chorus culminated this fall with the opening of the Chester Upland School of the Arts. Students there, currently in pre-K to second grade, are immersed in a curriculum that combines rigorous academics with music, dance, and visual arts. Read more about the school and John Alston in the Philadelphia Inquirer. From the beginning, Alston has worked closely with Vice President for College and Community Relations Maurice Eldridge '61 to make the chorus, and now the school, a reality. Eldridge, a lifelong educator, says both projects represent community building at its best.