The microphone shrieks during the sound check as an audience of family and friends shuffles around their chairs, anticipating the MIC Drop, the first student-led non-profit Music Impacts Community event. Jesse Varner ‘26, co-founder and host of the event, silences the audience as City High’s musical talent lines up to perform, from Mariachi music to Classical music and homegrown Iowa City singer-songwriters.
“I’ve been playing music since the fifth grade, and I grew up in a musical household, so when Jesse Varner, a classmate and friend, asked me if I wanted to create a nonprofit with some of our other peers and friends, I knew it would be impactful,” Lukas Schoen ‘26, co-founder of MIC, said.
Music Impacts Community, also known as MIC, is a non-profit organization aiming to give the musical community exposure through organized performances. MIC receives donations at events and donates their proceeds to different organizations within the Iowa City community.
“We don’t want to just benefit one part of our community; we want to benefit every area. So by switching up where our donations go every three months, we feel like we can raise enough money to make an impact within these valued organizations and charities,” Schoen said.
For their first event, MIC focused on young musicians within the City High School community but hopes to expand their events to young musicians of the Iowa City area as a whole. Musicians from every school in the district were lined up to perform at the second event but were unable to perform due to extenuating circumstances.
“We aim to provide musical exposure for the entire community of young musicians. It was never intended to be just City High students who perform. While our first and second events were at City High, we hope to spread our wings a little bit more and host events in more neutral locations,” Jesse Varner ‘26, co-founder of MIC, stated
MIC’s members include Jesse Varner ‘26, Gideon Levine ‘26, Lukas Schoen ‘26, Morgan Watson ‘26, Lucy Sherburne ‘27, and Silas Gollnick ‘26. The group has been having meetings since the beginning of the school year, collaborating to push their name out in the community. At the group’s first event in mid-November, they raised a total of 320 dollars; at their second event in early February, they raised 425 dollars.
“We’re internally fundraising and then donating all the funds raised at the end of March to the Shelter House of Iowa City, which we’re hoping will be just around 1,000 to 2,000 dollars,” Varner said.
The MIC was recently approved to get silver cord hours for their work and hopes that this accomplishment will inspire students at local high schools to get involved with their organization.
“The best way to support us is to simply show up and support your peers. If you’re an adult, show up to support the local youth. There’s a whole lot of talent, and so far, we haven’t charged admission for any of our events, so it’s completely free. But at the end of the day, every performer needs an audience to perform for,” Varner concluded.
