Playing the guitar has had a profound impact on my life! While I am currently a college music student with the hope of one day becoming a guitar performer and teacher, I started the Guitar North Florida organization to encourage music teachers and others in the school community to establish more guitar programs in high schools.

I attended two different high schools in Clay County, located in North Florida, and neither school had a guitar program, which put me at a huge disadvantage when auditioning for music colleges.   There is no high school within Clay County that offers a guitar program as part of its music department. To overcome this adversity, I decided to take a gap year after high school to improve my guitar skills and to learn more about careers for guitarists. During that year, I became a volunteer assistant guitar teacher at a high school in a neighboring county, which has over 140 students in its guitar program and has been in existence for over 30 years. 

Wow! I learned what a difference a school guitar program can offer prospective students! I began researching what it takes to begin a high school guitar program and discovered tons of information from high school teachers, scholarly researchers, and professional organizations.  

I then decided to construct a website and start a non-profit organization
to provide the inspiration, education, and connections
so others would find it easier to become advocates in their schools
to start more high school guitar programs. 

How did I become a college guitar student without having participated in a high school program?   After attempting to teach myself through online videos, I started private guitar lessons during my junior year in high school. I was fortunate that my family could afford them, as well as give me their generous support of time and encouragement. 

Most students who would like to play guitar are not as fortunate as I was.  

At Guitar North Florida, we are aiming to make guitars accessible to all students in North Florida, regardless of background. 

Although I am a college guitar student, not all guitar students will want to pursue a degree in music like me, or even to go to college. They will still benefit from a high school guitar program. Many students may pursue a music in college with an outside field degree, such as medicine, law, or business, just to name a few. If a student does not wish to pursue guitar in college, they will likely keep guitar playing throughout their life and become a hobbyist and guitar enthusiast. 

Playing the guitar has provided me with many opportunities and exciting experiences, including meeting seven Grammy Award-winning guitarists in the past year. I also attended the 2025 convention of the Guitar Foundation of America, which includes the premier classical guitar competition in the world. I am fortunate that the guitar has opened many doors of possibilities for my future. 

It is my hope that Guitar North Florida will open similar doors for other students of the guitar in their futures. 

My life has been greatly influenced by playing the guitar. I am more focused, confident, disciplined, and compassionate. I have opportunities to travel and connect with other guitarists across the world. I did not have the benefit of participating in a high school guitar program, as my high school experience with the guitar consisted of only private lessons. While I had advantages that many other high schoolers do not have, when applying for music colleges, I was at a disadvantage, having not participated in a structured guitar program. 

Fortunately for me, after high school, I took a gap year and became a volunteer assistant guitar teacher at the St. Johns County Center for the Arts (SJCCA) at St. Augustine High School under the direction of Dr. Jonathon Dotson. I learned there about the many benefits of a structured guitar program.

SJCCA offered six periods of guitar classes, one of which focused on Bluegrass music, and included two fiddle players, a bassist, and a banjo player, in addition to the guitarists. Guitar One was for beginners, and Guitar Four was for the more advanced students, with Guitar Two and Three for the intermediate students. They also had a class called Guitar Ensemble, which was an audition-based class with students who were seeking higher levels of instruction and perhaps preparing for college auditions. 

Throughout the year, Dr. Dotson had invited many professional guitarists from several different genres, including finger stylists, jazz guitarists, classical soloists, and even a guitar duo, to perform for his students, often giving masterclasses to the better students. Each of his classes had concert performances at least once per semester. Some of his students competed in competitions, including the Florida All-State Guitar Ensemble. The students would often hang out in the guitar room during their lunchtime for extra practice and to get some additional tips from Dr. Dotson.

On days I volunteered, I often gave private lessons and worked with individual sections of a class. I had fun and the students had fun, too! The camaraderie of playing guitar with other student guitarists was very enjoyable and rewarding. The whole experience has opened my eyes to the potential career opportunity of teaching high school guitar myself one day.