Sunday, April 28, 2024
Evant Independent School District is home to many extracurricular activities and programs to keep their students involved. One of the programs is held after school each day and is called the Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE).
The ACE program is led by two coordinators, Jaime Hanson and Dyani Nettles. Both educators have been involved with the program since August of 2023.
In early February, 30 guitars were donated to the program by a non-profit organization called Free Guitars 4 Kids. The organization believes that every child should have the opportunity to play, compete, or perform songs regardless of their ability to purchase an instrument.
With the donated guitars, Nettles expressed that the ACE program will be holding free guitar lessons to students who are members of the program.
“As of right now, we do not have music classes at our school,” Nettles said. “We believe that this will open up new doors for our musically- inclined students and give them even more incentive to be at school.”
The first class was held on Wednesday, March 6. All future classes will be held each Wednesday and Thursday at Evant ISD from 5:15 - 6:15 p.m.
The program has two volunteers that will teach the classes with the help of resources that have been provided by Free Guitars 4 Kids.
“We are opening up 10 spots for elementary students and 10 spots for junior high and high school students for this semester,” Nettles said. “Our hope is to continue to grow the program next year with the help of Free Guitars 4 Kids.”
To become a member of the ACE program, you must be enrolled at Evant ISD and go through the registration process.
Currently, there are approximately 120 students who are in the program from prekindergarten through twelfth grade.
“Our goal is to help foster our students’ academic goals and to also have our students learn new skills,” Nettles said. “We offer lots of different groups and activities such as cooking classes, art projects, science experiments, and even coding.”
This summer the program will be introduced to a new drone course, which will allow students to obtain their TRUST certification. The certification is an aeronautical knowledge and safety test which all drone flyers who are flying under the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations of Unmanned Aircraft must take to pass this course.
“We believe that the ACE program is important for our students because it gives them a chance to try new things,” Nettles said.
For further information, contact Dyani Nettles by email at dnettles@evantisd.org or Jaime Hanson by email at jhanson@evantisd.org.
Evant ISD is located at 339 Memory Lane in Evant.
