Week 0: Introduction

Hello hello hello! My name is Gustavo Ponzoa, and I’ve been at BASIS since 5th grade. For my Senior Project, I wish to examine the most effective ways to use benefit concerts to provide relief to suffering peoples, evaluating various steps of the process of using benefit concerts as mechanisms for altruism such as organizing, fundraising, and donating to identify areas for improvement in case studies for future application. I chose a more musical topic because I essentially live my life with my headphones on. From listening to hours of music daily, to discussing music in articles in The Grizzly or in my Music Appreciation Club, to creating music by playing the electric guitar, music is far and away my life’s greatest joy. However, since humanitarian crises show no sign of slowing down, it’s clear that we need to address these issues and alleviate as much human suffering as possible. One option for doing so, the benefit concert, strikes a chord with me, as its powerful combination of music and philanthropy inspires me greatly to research how my love of music can help raise money and provide relief for those who need it most, like George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh and the 1985 Live Aid concerts did for victims of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and the 1983–1985 Ethiopian Famine respectively. For my analysis of benefit concerts in today’s era, I will connect with and interview relevant figures such as benefit concert organizers, music industry workers, and associated charities to better grasp how people organize charity performances in the modern day. Additionally, I plan to create a detailed report evaluating various findings from my qualitative analysis of data from those involved with benefit concerts with mathematical simulations in MATLAB. I don’t yet have an on-site placement, but I plan to involve myself in work regarding the use of technology to optimize promotion or coordination of a charity event, perhaps honing in on the translation of funds raised to good done. For more details regarding my Senior Project, read here.