The Black History Summer Academy (BHSA) hosted in Lay Hall with collaboration of the School of Education & Child Development on Drury University’s Springfield campus each summer focuses on community building. The participants range from kindergarten aged to adults with classes focused on artistic enrichment, business, music, and culture. During the week-long program, participants enjoy building relationships within the Springfield community through classes, meals, and social interactions.
Every year participants have voiced a positive experience through comments like, “[BHSA] gives me a chance to meet and connect with people my age” and “great conversations, new insights.” BHSA is free to attend with all supplies, refreshments, and dinner provided. Many funds for BHSA come from grants, such as the Missouri Humanities Council Grant. The outreach from the community to financially help with BHSA is incredible. The classes are taught by local African American educators in a volunteer capacity, sharing their heart for black history culture. For many participants, BHSA is the first and only experience they have with African American teachers.
Curriculum for BHSA includes a coloring book created each summer in collaboration with Drury University’s Graphic and Digital Design department. The coloring book showcases local and national African Americans that serve as role models for the community. Curriculum also includes an aspect of entrepreneurship and business building as students work together to create arts and crafts to be sold at the conclusion of the program. These funds then help provide financial support for future summer programs.
The BHSA also provides useful knowledge for participants with one participant sharing that they “learned about different and new resources in the community.” One past theme for BHSA “Building Momentum: Striving Towards Excellence,” helps sum up the experience for their participants. This theme, like the others utilized over the years, reflects the determination and strength of this generation and the generations to come, with the goals for the Academy to continue to educate, equip, and inform.
