One year. It’s been one year since schools shut down. One year of quarantine. One year of face masks. One year of uncertainty.
Luckily, we can be certain of one thing: your support. Both our individual donors and community organizations came through for us over the past year, allowing us to maintain our mission by providing all-day e-learning support even when schools had to close their doors, and keeping our programs open when schools returned to session even though enrollment dropped. Not every out-of-school-time provider can say the same.
With the sunshine, warmer temperatures, and increased availability of vaccines for Indiana residents, it feels like our community is about to come back to life. While we’re still proceeding with caution and maintaining all the safety measures we’ve kept in place over the past twelve months, AYS is moving forward. Throughout this whole year, we’re proud to say we’ve always kept moving forward.
We’re currently in the middle of exciting new Spring Break programming, and we’re getting ready for some innovative initiatives later this year. Our summer programs are all about project-based learning, which will help kids get back on track academically after a very challenging year while still having a blast and creating projects they can share with their community.
We’re always looking for ways to make our summer programming more accessible to all parents, because as any parent knows, you don’t get summers off from being a mom or dad! Click here to donate to our 40th Anniversary campaign, which will go directly to our Ellen Clippinger Fund and support student attendance across all our programs. While the pandemic may be nearing the end, families are still feeling its impact and will be for years. Over this summer and the coming school year, the need for financial assistance is going to grow.
As spring rolls into summer, infection rates continue to fall, and we keep offering high-impact programming that minimizes learning loss, we can’t wait to see what the next twelve months will bring. All we know is we’ll keep moving forward together. We appreciate you.
Featured Donor: Corteva Agriscience
Thanks to a generous gift from Corteva Agriscience, a major American agricultural chemical and seed company, AYS is reinventing their program at ACE Preparatory Academy. ACE is a K-5 charter school that starts preparing students for college in kindergarten. “STEM Strong at AYS” will provide six weeks of engaging sustainability-focused STEM projects for students in AYS’ out-of-school-time program at ACE. Whether they’re learning about sustainability using Starburst candy or peer-learning through group sharing, these kids will boost their understanding of how sustainability and STEM go hand in hand. AYS is excited to provide programming that can narrow equity and achievement gaps and break down barriers to educational success in an area as crucial as STEM.
