The senior saxophonist had been in plenty of stressful situations before, but this was a first. He felt the sting of sweat and his hands growing slick as the wedding party assembled. The fact that this was his first professional gig ever began to set in, but then he remembered the years of practice he and his impromptu band had done together. He took a steadying breath, gave the cue to his band and began to play.

Experiences like this are one part of senior Jackson Streit’s long relationship with music and band. Since the age of five, Streit has been involved with music by playing the piano. In sixth grade, Streit auditioned for an instrument to join the middle school band and landed on the saxophone. According to Streit, the band program since middle school has provided him with not only a place to improve his craft, but to also improve on himself.

“[Band is] probably my favorite organization at the school,” Streit said. “It’s a perfect blend of physical exercise and creativity through learning your instrument and music in general, and there’s also a really good social aspect where you can make plenty of friends. All of these factors have helped me grow in some way, and I’ve met so many good people through it. I feel like no other extracurriculars have contributed in that way.” 

With all his hard work and practice, Streit won a spot through auditions for education travel company WorldSeries’ Honors Performance Series to perform at Carnegie Hall. He went in January of his sophomore year, and he was also set to play in Sydney and Vienna in the July of his junior and senior year before those were canceled due to COVID-19. After advancements to TMEA Area and Region band in his first three years of high school, Streit also qualified for the TMEA All-State Band in his senior year, even though he was sick at the time.

“I wasn’t capable of doing a whole lot at all [at the time],” Streit said. “All I had was time. I decided the one thing I was going to do was make All-State. Previously, I had gotten close, but I wasn’t able to make that last step. If I was going to spend 10 months in my house, being miserable, at the very least I wanted to accomplish something and be proud of something so that during that time, I could look back and say that part of it was worth it.”

According to Streit, his favorite band memory was not any of these accomplishments, but rather playing at a wedding for a friend of his private lesson teacher.

“While a lady was walking down the aisle getting married, I was the one playing the music for them,” Streit said. “The concerts are cool, but they come and go. They’re memorable because they’re interesting, but there’s no emotional attachment to them like there is to a wedding. This was the best day of the lady’s life, and I was there contributing to that. I made that day better for her. And it was stressful going into it, it was months of panicking, it wasn’t some manufactured concert. That kind of power that music was able to bring to this person’s life [and ]the ability to impact someone’s life like that is so much more important than any individual performance at a concert hall.” 

Streit is also a regular volunteer for the community through time spent as a member of the National English Honor Society, a president of both the Young Men’s Service League and the Key Club, and a vice president of the National Honor Society. Even before this, however, Streit began a nonprofit with the help of his parents in eighth grade to help foster kids. When Streit was in fourth grade, a series of foster kids that his family adopted and the struggles that he witnessed them going through gave him the motivation later on to start it, according to Streit.

“I think an issue with injustices in the world is that people understand these things are sad, but you don’t personally feel what those kids are going through,” Streit said. “Once these kids came through our house, I had more of an emotional connection to their circumstances. Having another kid in your house is a pretty big undertaking, so we decided the best thing to do was to instead try and contribute in various ways. We started the nonprofit, and it was a resounding success.”

The nonprofit is named Gear for Kids. Streit has paired with various organizations, including Key Club and its sponsor Amy Durden to fundraise for Gear for Kids. From raising $15,000 worth of prom dresses to providing school supplies and clothing and donating these supplies to the Child Protective Services’ Rainbow Room resource centers, the nonprofit has a long streak of supporting foster children. 

“A lot of foster kids don’t have anything,” Streit said. “They would come into our houses with nothing, so we collected a lot of clothing, school supplies, diapers, items like that so they could have something of their own. Rainbow Room worked directly with CPS, so the work through that organization felt supremely impactful, as the items we supplied went straight into the hands of those in need.”

According to Streit, experiencing these injustices within the foster care system is part of the reason why he will pursue a double major in public policy and possibly political science, with the end goal of becoming a lawyer representing foster children. He will also aim for a minor in music performance. Streit will be pursuing his degree at Duke University this fall. 

“I want to be a lawyer, and public policy is a great opening into that,” Streit said. “What those kids go through is very tragic, and there’s no clearer path for me than to do what I can to right that. Duke is obviously renowned for its education, but I think what sets it apart in my opinion from other higher-end schools is that it also has this culture of teamwork. Other Ivy Leagues don’t quite have that same culture.  I’m not just paying for education, but for the kind of growth that I can get as a person from being in that sort of ecosystem.”