Deeper Learning 2016

Carli Willis has been a student at High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota for the past several years.  During this time, she has become involved in a number of school and community-based activities.  Always having been a dancer, she runs a dance group at HSRA.  She is also a host for our weekly community meetings, our radio show Studio 4 All Access, and the soon to air YouTube video version of the show.  In the community, she organized and continues to run a group for younger girls who are experiencing life challenges.  Her greatest community effort, however, has been as an advocate for homeless youth.  Carli has helped to organize events, spoken with governmental officials and representatives of foundations, and has given speeches at various venues.  Her most recent speech was to commemorate the groundbreaking of Prior Crossing, a new homeless shelter for youth.  She has also spoken at the National Charter School Conference, and was a recent keynote speaker for the Pillsbury United Communities Conference, a major charitable, education and social services organization in Minneapolis.  She has sat on several boards and panels dealing with at-promise youth and education/community issues.  HSRA hosts an award event at the end of each school year called “The Wolfie Awards.”  Carli won five last year:  Poet of the Year, Radio Show Host of the Year, Activist of the Year, Community Service, and HAS Student of the Year.  She is planning to do Post Secondary Enrollment Options this Spring at the College of St. Catherine.  She won a scholarship at the HSRA Gala event last year for her academic ability, and another scholarship from the St. Paul Optimist Club for her work in overcoming adversity and contributing to the community.  She was also recently awarded a year-long scholarship to study at the Paris School of Business in Paris, France next year.



Lewis McCaleb, also known as Lewiee Blaze, was born November 11, 1997 in Minneapolis, MN.  In his early childhood he grew up in St. Paul living with his father, mother, and two little brothers.  His father Lewis "Miki" McCaleb was well known around the city for his Blues music band "Miki L and the Star Time."  Growing up around his father influenced him to love music at a early age.  He even played drums in the band at a couple of shows at the age of 5.  His first ever performance was at Famous Dave's in Uptown.  As he got older his mother and father separated.  That's when he had to mature fast to help take care of his little brothers.  His mother always listened to artists like Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas, Slick Rick, and more.  He began to fall in love with the sound of Hip-Hop.  At the age of 10 he was writing his own rhymes.  Living a struggled life in poverty, Lewis began to hang out with the wrong crowd and made some bad decisions that lead to a big wake up call. From that point, he flipped it and started to use his struggles as motivation to change.  After years of development, Lewis noticed that people were attracted to his rap flow.  He decided to pursue a music career and got serious about it at the age of 16. Now in 2016, Lewis is a senior at The High School For Recording Arts becoming one step closer to his dream.  He plans to drop his debut mixtape in the spring of 2016 and take the industry by storm