Like any aspiring singer/songwriter, Phoebe Claggett wanted to be heard. She had been singing, playing piano, and writing songs since an early age and knew that her future lay in music. But she recognized that getting heard and becoming successful were not simple tasks.

Claggett opted for a novel approach: she decided to use her music to raise funds for charity. A high-school junior in St. Louis, Missouri, at the time, she set up a home studio and soon after had recorded her first CD, Down the Road, consisting entirely of music she had written and performed. She chose to donate all proceeds from the CD's sales to the St. Louis chapter of Variety, a group that assists disabled children and teens.

Claggett sold the CD at bookstores and coffee houses in the city and was pleased with the results. "It ended up raising $1,500, which was really shocking," she says. She then helped raise even more money for Variety, singing live on a St. Louis telethon that also featured country-music stars Vince Gill and Wynonna Judd.

Claggett has since found Kenyon to be a supportive place to explore her musical ambitions. She is considering a major in anthropology, and she finds ethnomusicology-the study of music in culture-to be a fascinating field. And, she has found an active music scene. "There are a lot of opportunities for me to perform here," she says, noting that she has performed at Middle Ground Café, a coffee house on campus, and is a member of the Owl Creek Singers, one of the College's a cappella groups.

Her original music has also attracted a following. Fellow students have purchased both her first CD and Poster on the Wall, a CD that she finished shortly before coming to Kenyon. Copies of her songs are frequently traded on Kenyon's computer network.

"People here really respect music," says Claggett. "They care a lot, and they're willing to listen."