Every Sunday, Ashley Ma brought not only over ten years of experience as a pianist, but also a heart full of compassion and patience to the FCSN South Bay community through her work at Special Melodies Choir Program, a class for neurodiverse individuals to enjoy singing and dancing in a group setting. Throughout her journey from assistant teacher to Executive Committee member, Ashley’s service over the past five years has been invaluable to special needs students and the Special Melodies program alike.

Ashley’s volunteering journey with FCSN began in 2019 when her piano teacher, a founder of Special Melodies, introduced her to the ensemble. Ashley began with the position of assistant teacher. On a one-to-one basis, she encouraged special needs students to participate in class, maintain their focus, and improve their musical abilities, all while having fun. Initially, Ashley was nervous about being the youngest volunteer, but, in the light of everyone’s shared love for music, the age or ability of any member was unimportant. She looks back fondly on the “we got this” attitude of the group’s performance of “Little Apple,” or “小苹果,” at her first recital with Special Melodies on FCSN Family Day 2019. “It’s cool to be on stage and look out at all these people watching you, and also to form a bond with who you’re performing with,” Ashley said. 

When she was a sophomore, Ashley stepped into membership in the Special Melodies Executive Committee, but also into an unexpected challenge: the pandemic. Her responsibilities—managing logistics, communications, and volunteer recruitment—now included reformatting all these tasks to Zoom. “It was interesting to navigate how we would shift online, especially because our meetings are group based, and that interaction is super important,” Ashley said. Yet, with her and other volunteers’ dedication, Special Melodies thrived, remaining a source of joy that became more impactful than ever upon its special needs students.

Reflecting on her experiences with FCSN, Ashley prizes the connections she built with students and fellow volunteers. “The community is just really, really awesome,” she said. At Special Melodies, friendship between the student and teacher, as well as between classmates, was the framework by which students advanced their social skills, coordination, and musicianship. “I’m always impressed by how much the students grow each semester. There’s a range of musical ability, and [their progress] is always really cool to see,” Ashley said. Over the course of a semester, students would learn to sing one song and dance volunteer-created choreography to another. By the semester’s final rehearsal, both pieces would become memorized and completed by props, formation changes, and lots of enthusiasm. Ashley’s favorite part of teaching has been watching this process come together. “When you first start working on something, you’re doing it in parts, like, ‘Let’s focus on this, let’s focus on that.’ But that first moment when you kind of click everything together and run through the whole thing once, that’s pretty cool to see,” Ashley said. 

 Ashley also notes the importance of acknowledging the individuality of each person within the greater special needs community. “I think that when working with people with special needs, well, it really depends on the person,” Ashley said. When leading a class, she sometimes found it challenging to engage high-energy students while including the more reserved students. One way she maintained this balance was by checking in with students as often as possible. “As class goes on, shout them out, encourage them, (…) make sure they’re doing okay,” Ashley said. 

Currently, Ashley acts primarily as a program mentor, training and guiding new high school volunteers at Special Melodies. “It’s been pretty amazing to see new teachers growing into their leadership roles. I’ve been trying to remember how scary it is to start a leadership role, because I’ve been volunteering with FCSN for a while. Sometimes it’s easy to see what’s going wrong, and not what’s going right. So, I’m just really trying to be encouraging and supportive, rather than critical,” Ashley said. 

Additionally, Ashley’s passion for piano led her to teach outside of FCSN for Silicon Valley Melodies, a nonprofit organization offering affordable music lessons from high school musicians. During her time at the Harker School, Ashley also played the flute in orchestra and presided over the Future Problem Solvers Club. Currently, she plans to study political science at UC Irvine and is interested in law and teaching. Regardless of where the future takes Ashley, those at FCSN will remember well her heartfelt dedication to serving the special needs community.