An NFL player is teaming up with a Los Angeles area music studio to give kids free studio time and industry experience.
Miami Dolphins linebacker and Redlands East Valley High School graduate Jaelan Phillips and his foundation announced a new partnership with Green Tea Studios in Santa Monica, which also employs the author, as part of Phillips’ foundation’s Young Artist Initiative.
The initiative, currently a summer camp series with plans on evolving into a year-long program, will provide kids with experience in music production, songwriting and engineering. Participants will also have the chance to work with industry professionals in a real studio environment, giving them a platform that can help launch them into a music career.
The Young Artist Initiative aligns with the mission of the Jaelan Phillips Foundation, which aims to empower young people and provide meaningful connections and opportunities for success in the industry.
“Music has always been my passion and a powerful outlet for me throughout my life,” Phillips, who was born and raised in Redlands, told KTLA. “Through my foundation and its programs like the Young Artist Initiative with Green Tea Studios, we’re not only giving youth access to music education, but also giving them a creative outlet to express themselves and find their voices.”
Foundation and studio officials are coordinating with the city of Santa Monica’s Virginia Avenue Park Teen Center and the St. Joseph’s Center’s Youth Resource Team to expand the program.
“This venture is a perfect match to our foundation’s goals, and we could not be more excited to see the program’s impact on these budding young artists,” said Jaelan Phillips Foundation Executive Director Sabine Robertson-Phillips, Jaelan’s mother. “It is fortuitous that Jaelan met Barry and Joni of Green Tea Studios at a time when the foundation was looking for a partner in the Los Angeles area.”
Phillips, 25, was a five star recruit in the class of 2017 — he was the No. 1 ranked defensive player in the nation — and originally committed to play for UCLA.
Following two injury-plagued seasons, he medically retired in December 2018; less than a year prior, he was struck by a car while riding a moped on the campus of UCLA, which caused him to sustain a severe wrist injury that required multiple surgeries. In addition to the wrist injury, he had also sustained multiple concussions and ankle injuries.
After quitting football, he transferred to Los Angeles City College to study music production before eventually transferring again, this time to the University of Miami, where he found his footing as a football player again.
Two years after transferring to the U, he was selected 18th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft by the Dolphins.
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