Summer Programs At Horizons St. Louis-Kirkwood

rate from drowning. She said statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that minority students die at three times the rate of the national average from water incidents.

Robinson and Kelly said it’s gratifying that 100% of parents come to watch their students perform in swimming classes. They added that many parents are pleased to see their kids learning something that they missed out on.

Once Sprog, Now Horizons

For 50 years, the Kirkwood youth program was known as Sprog — a portmanteau of Sponsors Program — and was based at Grace Episcopal Church most summers. In 2018, the Sprog board determined it was time for the program to affiliate with Horizons National in Connecticut and move to Kirkwood High School.

Horizons has experience with summer programs in various locations throughout the country and provides resources, leadership training and tools to evaluate student progress through data comparisons.

“Everybody says: ‘Yes, but does it work?’ Do we address that summer slide?” said Robinson. “We can answer that confidently now with data, with pre-testing and post-testing of students. Horizons has given us PQA — Program Quality Assessment Tools.”

Kelly, a past president of the Kirkwood School District Board of Education, added that Horizons has helped refine the program’s mission. She said the goal is to eliminate the “opportunity gap,” with an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion and quality learning.

Quality learning puts the emphasis on literacy, and literacy is essential when it comes to succeeding in math. Students who excel at reading comprehension are in a better position to tackle math problems, according to Robinson.

Students don’t just get a head full of facts and equations at Horizons. They also get a stomach full of healthy snacks donated by Kirk Care, Great Harvest Bread Company and local grocery stores. Students also learn healthy eating habits and how to cook quality treats. They are encouraged to take home ingredients from kitchen projects and replicate the

Pandemic Took A Toll

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges across the board for education, and Horizons is no exception. Robinson said students now need “emotional learning” beyond academic learning.

Larry Morgan, a teacher at Westchester Elementary School in the Kirkwood School District, agrees with Robinson. Morgan has taught with Horizons for several summers.

“I began the summer teaching in 2019 when the program was still called Sprog, and then when it was transitioning to

Horizons and the pandemic hit,” he said. “The virtual learning by computer was not ideal. A lot of learning was lost and we faced challenges.”

Morgan said children were isolated and scared during the lock down. Their parents did not have answers for them with all of the mixed messages about the virus. He said many children also lost a sense of how to regulate themselves emotionally under stress.

According to Morgan, Horizons St. Louis in Kirkwood is a great venue for meeting the challenges. That’s because it’s about socialization, as well as academics, and children need to learn how to interact again.

“I can see it’s going to take some time to get back to normal,” said Morgan. “Horizons can help. It’s an educational continuum with students and families. It’s not just a summer gig. I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Clayton attorney and Kirkwood High School graduate Bob West is also proud to be a part of Horizons as a board member. West was president of Sprog for 36 years and recalls when the program started as a nonprofit in 1970.

“I have a lot of good memories with Sprog, but it was time to affiliate with an entity like Horizons,” said West.

“We are now a more professional, more academically sound and a more highly certified organization.

“Horizons St. Louis in Kirkwood deserves to be supported,” said West “We’re not a summer camp. We’re not a summer school semester. We’re a very needed summer experience for kids who deserve our support.”

For more information about Horizons, visit the organization’s website at Horizonsstlouis.org.

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