(Original Photo By: Michael Raveney)
According to Global Issues, almost 50% of the world (over three billion people) is living on less than $2.50 per day. $2.50 a day. Let that sink in. Sometimes we ignore this fact, but it’s happening all around. For 22-year-old producer/DJ, Michael Brun, seeing this poverty in his hometown of Port-au-Prince, Haiti was a painful reality. 
For Michael, he grew up in a more prosperous part of Port-au-Prince. He was blessed with a good education, which made him work harder and take advantage of the opportunities he was given. According to Brun, “Education in Haiti is such an underfunded and overlooked issue that could really change the course of the country if fixed.” He planned on becoming a doctor and would volunteer at hospitals when he was just a teenager. Through a scholarship program, he went on to study at the Culver Military Academy, which is a very rigorous and prestigious college-preparatory school in Indiana. This is also where he developed a love for producing electronic music. He learned a lot of discipline while trying to balance producing, schoolwork, and military responsibilities. Nonetheless, he learned to stay focused, graduated, and earned a full scholarship to Davidson College in North Carolina where he studied biology and entered the Pre-Medical program.
A common theme throughout Aspire to Inspire, however, is that a lot of us have experienced a career dilemma at some point in our lives. Despite the fact that Michael was pursuing a career in the medical field, he decided his first love was music. Therefore, in 2013 he moved to Miami, Florida and focused on music full-time.
He uses the discipline he learned at Culver in his every day life, as he is not only a touring musician, but also launched his own record label (Kid Coconut) as well. His goal with Kid Coconut is to give back. He wants to use this label as a platform to help undiscovered artists get their music to a greater audience. Additionally, he recently conducted a workshop back in Haiti at the Audio Institute to help students with their productions.
He may be young, but he is already making incredible moves to maintain a long-lasting, successful career. He can only hope to take the advice and help he has received from others and use that to inspire each one of you.
If you want to get a more in-depth look at Michael’s time while living in Haiti, the challenges he has faced as a musician, and his plan to give back, then we invite you to tune in to Aspire to Inspire Live TOMORROW (Wednesday) night at 8pm EST.
