Using a Kanye West song as inspiration, three medical students released a video on YouTube March 21 to thank frontline pandemic workers.
Tyler Beauchamp and Rushay Amarath started recording “Stay Inside: A Toast to the Frontline” early into the pandemic last year.
“We wanted to help,” said Beauchamp, who helps run the college’s student “Music in Medicine”’ program.
But helping for the medical students didn’t mean assisting the sick, it meant staying inside, wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.
“We weren’t allowed to be in the hospital,” he said.
While they watched from the sidelines, Beauchamp and Amarath penned the song and shot pieces of the video on campus.
Amarath and Beauchamp have musical chops. The son of a musician, Beauchamp took piano and sang. He admitted most of his singing has been done in the shower, even his friends didn’t know he could, Beauchamp said.
Amarath took piano and played in the high school marching band.
Tyler Beauchamp is a Medical College of Georgia student. Courtesy photo. 
Rushay Amarath is a Medical College of Georgia student. Courtesy photo. Andy Nguyen is a Medical College of Georgia student. Courtesy photo
After the video was finished, the quality wasn’t what they wanted.
“It was shot on laptops and shot on a cell phone, and it looked pretty bad,” said Beauchamp.
It wasn’t until they met Nguyen who is in his first year at the Medical College of Georgia that the pieces came together into a polished product. Nguyen’s videography and design skills took the product to the next level, they said.
Not only are Amarath and Beauchamp featured within the video, but dozens of photos are included as part of a montage.
“We started with six photos. We started working with Andy cold-calling colleges and hospitals and first responders,” Beauchamp said.
Those cold calls garnered photographs from 45 health care systems, said Amarath. They highlight the work of medical professionals and first responders in multiple states including Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Montana, Alabama, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alaska and Colorado.
But they didn’t stop with medical frontline workers. They also included photographs of school children, teachers and delivery people.
The students hope their video will go viral, Amarath said, but not for the sake of having a viral video. The video is a way of saying “thank you” and bringing a smile to those who’ve sacrificed, he said.
“The only reason we want it to go viral is to make more people smile,” he said.
And don’t expect an encore performance, the trio said.
“This is a product of the pandemic,” Beauchamp said. “We wouldn’t push ourselves if it wasn’t for the message behind it.”
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
