In November 2023, more than 500 people filed into a village hall on South Uist. They were there partly to remember a lost friend, but they were also drawn by the music that one young artist inspired.
Schoolteacher Chloe Steele was the driving force behind Calum Beag’s Cèilidh, a musical album and charity event she organised in memory of her father-in-law. She has so far raised £7,261.34 for the Western Isles Cancer Care Initiative and requested that all of the money stay locally within Uist and Barra.
Although still in her early 20s, Chloe’s music career has had a number of highlights, including piping for a Scottish wrestling team in Sardinia.
But nothing is likely to top the sense of pride she feels about her charity album.
“Every generation from seven to 70 was involved in the album. And it was just a true reflection of what the community is and how it should be.”
When the University of the Highlands and Islands founders first dreamed up their idea of a university in the north, they will have had students like Chloe in mind.
Read more: Colleges are at the heart of UHI's founding and mission
As the first student to complete the UHI degree in applied music while studying from home on South Uist, Chloe lived up to UHI’s goal: retaining talented young people to help foster an appreciation of their heritage and community in the next generation. And all based around the local college’s integration with the community and connectivity to partners across the country.
Through her work in the community, Chloe has shown that giving ambitious students the choice between staying at home or going away for their studies can pay generational dividends.
Chloe knew that she wanted to study music, to refine her love of Gaelic language and musical heritage into a career. But after a short foray to the mainland when she was 18, she returned home looking for a better way to explore her roots without having to uproot herself.
“I remember getting on the ferry and crying my eyes out for a year because I was sick. I was actually sick with homesickness.”
Her new course of action brought her to the UHI applied music programme at UHI Outer Hebrides (now UHI North, West and Hebrides), which she completed in 2020.
Read more: Can Scotland's youngest college offer a roadmap to sustainability?
Studying from home allowed her to experience her island without feeling trapped by it, and now she is overflowing with energy to help other young people on South Uist open their eyes to what’s in front of them.
“It’s funny because if you do something yourself every single day of your life, you’re never going to appreciate it. That’s something that I took really strongly from the course, was how it allowed me to see what was in front of me and think about it really deeply.
“Now that’s had such an impact on me and who I am, the things I’m involved in. It has changed the type of teacher I am and it’s where my love for children comes from. I think they’re just so important because, without them, how will our traditions carry on?”
As part of Chloe’s programme through UHI, she not only trained her musical talent but also learned ways to use music in her everyday life.
Charity efforts are just one outlet. Chloe’s second passion is for her students at Sgoil Uibhist a Tuath and she has made traditional music and Gaelic language a staple of her primary lessons.
She hopes that her pupils come away with an appreciation of their heritage and culture in a way Chloe wishes she had been able to feel earlier in her life.
“I think it starts from the kids. It starts from the kids. If you don’t give them a grasp form a young age that it’s important that it is special then they may not realise it.”
Laying that foundation for appreciating what’s around them early in a child’s life might help their revelation come sooner. Still, Chloe said that important intergenerational work should happen in every direction.
“Some of the best moments I’ve had as a musician have been through intergenerational work. That doesn’t mean putting on a big fancy gig, it’s just being in the same room with someone who’s 80 and someone who’s eight.
“Passing knowledge and history is so precious. And you wouldn’t get that experience in a larger community, but it’s these small moments that people take for granted here.”
Read more: A day at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig - Scotland's only Gaelic college
As much as Chloe credits her development and her ability to give back to her community to her UHI course, she attributes the course's power to its leader, Anna-Wendy Stevenson.
“It’s people who make things, and they can either damage you or raise you up and support you. I think the reason the applied music course is the way it is is because of Anna-Wendy.
“She’s unbelievable and I know that I would not be who I am without her.”
Anna-Wendy might balk at the praise from her former student, but she does not deny that Chloe’s story epitomises what UHI–and in particular, the applied music course—is all about.
As the first course of its kind to be delivered by a further and higher education institution and delivered remotely, the programme was a flagship one to bring UHI’s core values to the world at large.
Even though the course has had students from England and further abroad, Anna-Wendy sees the opportunities it offers students such as Chloe as the most important aspect.
“As a musician, I think having wider perspectives to bring to your own culture and appreciate it with fresh eyes is very, very important. And we get to do that online through our programme, whether it’s other cultures or other genres.
“But I think that the impact that an individual can have in a community by being able to stay is so significant.
“Chloe is still young, and her impact has been so significant. She has influenced so many young children and they are so inspired by her.”
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