High note: The marching band program at KIPP Tulsa University Prep

KIPP Tulsa University Prep might not have a football team, but they do have an exceptional marching band program.

For Jakari Reynolds, who graduated from KIPP in May, the school’s band program wasn’t just an extracurricular activity; it paved the way for him to march off to college this month.

Reynolds, a percussionist who began performing with the KIPP Tulsa marching band when he was a student at Thoreau Middle School, will attend Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, this fall. He’ll major in business administration and will march with the band.

Although his participation in the KIPP band program was initially encouraged by his mom, Reynolds soon fell in love with it all on his own. “I was always into music, so it just kind of followed my passion, and I stuck with it,” he says.

On the surface, the band program at KIPP Tulsa University Prep looks like most others — instruments, music and hot summer marching practices. But there’s a bigger mission: exposing students to the possibilities of their futures.

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