MPG – A Socially Engaged Design Project Team
About MPG
MPG stands for Música Para La Gente, which translates to Music for the People. MPG is an organization that was founded by Paulo Zepeda and Giancarlo Medrano through the support of Innovation in Action (IiA), a program hosted throughout the school year by the Center of Socially Engaged Design at the University of Michigan. MPG’s mission is to provide the Latinx community an opportunity to create music by providing access to instruments, recording equipment, and a supportive community. The ultimate goal is to implement musical resources in low-income Latinx communities across Michigan for access to open creative space, instruments, recording equipment and mentorship. MPG recognizes the importance of music and creative arts across all communities, and is striving to ensure that underrepresented communities are able to leverage the privilege of accessible musical resources.
The Team
Paulo Zepeda
Paulo is currently a rising senior at the University of Michigan, enrolled in the Ross School of Business. He was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI, transferred to U of M from Grand Rapids Community College, and have been playing instruments since he was 12, mostly string instruments! When Paulo transitioned to the the U of M campus, he saw an abundance of resources available, not only scholarly one but also creative ones; he took advantage of the music studios that the campus offered for free to students. Growing up in an underrepresented community, this was the first time Paulo was exposed to resources and spaces like this, and as he’s been navigating his college journey trying to explore his passions for business and music, he knew that MPG was a perfect venture to explore along with G and IiA. Paulo thought to myself, “this opportunity shouldn’t have taken me so long to reach, there are so many people in my community that could use this opportunity too, which motivated me to create that intersection between music and entrepreneurship and follow through with MPG.”
G Medrano
Giancarlo Medrano is a second-year transfer student in the B.S. Sound Engineering program. He is most passionate about recording, music production, and using engineering concepts to develop and design tools for the audio setting. Giancarlo’s inspiration for MPG was to create opportunities that were not available to him growing up in Colorado. He wants to increase and provide musical resources for low-income Latinx communities across Michigan.