Voices of Impact: Everybody Plays It Forward
Featuring Jee-Hoon Krska, Keys 2 Success
Welcome to Voices of Impact, an interview series highlighting nonprofit and community leaders creating meaningful change through service, innovation, and a deep commitment to the people they serve.
Some leaders build programs. Others build pathways that help people see more possibility for themselves and for each other.
For Jee-Hoon Krska, the mission of Keys 2 Success grew from a deeply personal belief in what access, community, and opportunity can make possible. What began as a desire to give children in Newark the same kind of doors music once opened for her has grown into something much larger: a model where students become leaders, communities connect, and everyone is encouraged to play it forward.
In this interview, Jee-Hoon shares what first drew her to Newark, how Keys 2 Success is thinking about growth and succession, why student leadership matters so much, and what it means to build something that can reach far beyond one person.
💭 QUESTION 1
What first drew you to the mission of Keys 2 Success, and what keeps you committed to it today?
Honestly, a lot of things pulled me in, but it started with wanting my kids to know where I came from. I grew up in Queens, and Newark reminded me of it right away. So we started spending time there, and the more we did, the more I saw how much your zip code can decide what doors open for you, right from the day you’re born.
But what stayed with me was the community. We went to a Brazilian church, and I fell in love with a culture I’d never known. The food, yes, but really it was the way people took care of each other, watching each other’s kids and sharing whatever they had.
The picture I can’t shake is a little group from church. We’d meet every week in a tiny railroad-style apartment in the Ironbound. No living room, so we sat on their beds. But there was always something simmering on the stove for us, a homemade cake, coffee with way too much sugar and milk. We never once felt cramped or like anything was missing. I saw that same sense of community at Pennington Court, a mostly Black housing community.
Why music? I grew up at the piano, seriously enough that I went through Juilliard’s Pre-College program as a kid. But my path took a turn into engineering, all the way through a doctorate at MIT. In 2001, I stopped playing altogether. For more than a decade, I barely touched a piano.
Then in 2014, out of nowhere, my old piano teacher David Deveau called and asked if I’d play the Mozart two-piano concerto with him. With the Boston Pops. After ten years away. Of course I said yes, and of course I practiced like a madwoman to be ready for it.
That’s the moment that opened my eyes. Here I was, an engineer who’d walked away from music years earlier, and it still came back around to put me on a stage with the Boston Pops. And it hit me: music had put a star over my head growing up. It opened doors. It made me stand out. I could hand that same gift to kids in Newark, so they’d stand out too.
My ambitions were small back then. I really just wanted to do one small thing. But year after year, something happened that I never saw coming. Music started pulling people together. Pennington Court kids were mixing with the Latino kids down the block and making friends with kids in mostly white and Asian suburbs like mine. Their world got bigger. So did mine.
And then came the other surprise. The students started becoming leaders, all on their own. One day I was running between kids teaching them to play, and I turned around and saw one of the girls helping the girl next to her find her notes on the keyboard. That little moment became the seed for our Fellows program, where students become teachers. Me needing help is exactly what gave them room to step up. Watching kids grow like that, day by day, is what keeps me here.
💭 QUESTION 2
What’s one of the biggest challenges you’re navigating right now?
The hardest thing right now is naming what we’ve actually built. Figuring out which parts are the true heart of Keys, the parts we have to protect, and which parts are just my personal style and can fall away. That’s all wrapped up in succession planning and making sure Keys outlives me.
Here’s what we’ve landed on so far: the DNA of Keys is that everybody plays it forward. Nobody’s here to make a name for themselves. We’re here to lend our credibility, our networks, and our resources to the students so that they win.
The college interns we hire get this. They’re not competing against each other because opportunity isn’t scarce and it doesn’t need hoarding. They help each other land internships and scholarships. And the students are helping each other learn from day one.
But the biggest challenge is the numbers. There are 70,000 students in Newark. Keys reaches a little over 250 a year. Two pillar community music schools closed recently, which means more kids with nowhere to go and a bigger opening for us than we’ve ever had.
We can’t multiply ourselves the old way. So we built something new called Play-It-Forward.
If our whole model is people handing the gift forward, why stop at students? Play-It-Forward brings music to the very youngest kids, ages zero to five. Instead of us teaching every class, we train preschool and daycare teachers to lead it themselves. They keep the music going long after we leave the room.
It’s the students-become-teachers idea, just aimed at a whole city. That’s how 250 kids a year turns into something that can actually reach Newark.
💡 KEY INSIGHT
“The DNA of Keys is that everybody plays it forward.”
💭 QUESTION 3
Can you share a recent moment that reminded you why this work matters?
Teaching at a Haitian church this summer. And the best part is, it wasn’t even my idea.
One of our high school leaders dreamed it up. She looked at what Keys does and thought, my church needs this, and this could work here. So she planned a whole day for us to come teach at her church.
Almost a hundred people showed up, babies all the way up to high schoolers, plus moms and caregivers. The kids looked on curiously as the piano bus rolled into the parking lot.
It’s our mobile unit, a wrapped van towing a trailer that opens up right there on the street. One whole side lifts like an awning, and suddenly there’s a little stage with keyboards ready to play. We started teaching a small group inside the trailer, and within minutes other kids were running over asking if they could jump in too.
What made me proudest was that our students ran the whole thing. While I taught in the trailer, one group had kids outside at the pianos, and another was under the tents running theory games.
I barely had to direct any of it. They just knew what to do.
That’s when it hits you that the thing you built is bigger than you now.
💭 QUESTION 4
As you look ahead, what feels most important for Keys 2 Success and the communities you serve?
Looking ahead, the thing I care most about is that we keep learning to see each other as infinitely valuable, every single person full of potential.
That we stop sorting ourselves into little pockets of people just like us.
We really do need each other.
Keys has only cracked open a few small doors between communities that history kept apart. I won’t pretend it’s easy. It’ll probably always be an uphill climb.
But I don’t want us to give up the quest, because when it works, all of us are better for it.
Learn More
Learn more about Keys 2 Success, its music education and leadership programs, and the organization’s work to expand opportunity for young people in Newark.
If you’d like to support Keys 2 Success’ mission or learn more about its programs, please visit:
Keys 2 Success
https://www.keysnewark.com
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About Voices of Impact
Voices of Impact is an interview series highlighting nonprofit and community leaders creating meaningful change through service, innovation, and a deep commitment to the people they serve.
