When asked to express himself through music for the first time, a 17-year-old spending seven months in the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility wrote a powerful song about what it felt like to miss his daughter's first steps and other milestones while detained.

I was there the day you came into this world. It was love at first sight. 
I told myself that I could do this right. 
Seeing you born was the best moment of my life. 
When I held you in my arms, I knew that I would have to fight. 
I never knew that I would be away for this long. 
I can't be crying, so I put these tears up in this song. 
I put the pain in the track, put my heart in this rap,
and I promise I'll make it up to you when I get back.

He was one of 24 students from San Diego SOAR Academy's East Mesa site who participated in a six-week program organized by the nonprofit group David's Harp Foundation.

"The collaboration with David's Harp is more than music production. It is about building a bridge to the community through mentorship and working with the Probation department to make students successful upon their release," said Nathan Head, site administrator for the East Mesa site, which is one of the San Diego County Office of Education's Juvenile Court and Community Schools (JCCS).

The goal of David's Harp Foundation is to inspire, educate, and empower youth who are at-risk and homeless to achieve academic success through music education, sound engineering, and multimedia production.

To read more of  the San Diego County Office of Education's article, please click here.