The 2025 Horizons Summer Program will run from June 9 to July 18, 2025, at Keysor Elementary School in Kirkwood, Mo.
The educational and fun-filled days that include academic work, swimming lessons and field trips run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the program is offered to eligible elementary and middle school students in the Kirkwood School District attendance area.
William Jones, a resident of the Meacham Park neighborhood, and Cleo Lewright, a teacher at Turner School in Meacham Park, created a partnership with the Christian Social Relations Committee at Grace Episcopal Church in Kirkwood during the late 1960s.
Three church members, Mrs. Garnet Thies, Mrs. Anne Scharon, and Mrs. Ann Cook, worked with Jones and Lewright to engage local business owners in the Kirkwood area to form the Sponsors Program.
In September of 1970, the organization was incorporated as Sprog, Inc., a Missouri non-profit corporation. Kem Mosley, and later his wife Karen Mosley, served key roles as program director and later as executive director.
By the mid-1970s, Sprog was primarily operating a summer program out of donated facilities in Grace Episcopal Church and attendance grew to as many as 120 children each summer.
In 2019, Sprog Inc., became an affiliate of Horizons National, drawing on Horizons’ proven model for advancing educational equity. A collaboration with the Kirkwood School District had been part of the program for years, and daily sessions are now held at Keyser, with access to Kirkwood High School’s Walker Natatorium.
Kayla Bryant, executive director, will be leading her first summer session after joining the Horizons team last August.
She brings a background in nonprofit development and programming to Horizons, and her primary helping Horizons build on past fundraising successes, and to extend the network of community partners that provide outstanding educational and enrichment experiences during the summer.
“Our project-based educational model is designed to fuel a lifelong passion for learning, blending high-quality academics with cultural enrichment and confidence-building activities. Our focus on literacy and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) inspires students to learn, achieve, and experience greater academic success,” according to Byant on the Horizon’s website.
In addition to swimming instruction, campers receive healthy meals and snacks, field trips, arts, sports, and “an overall emphasis on social-emotional learning.
Horizons serves students with a broad range of academic skills, providing them with the opportunity to experience success in a setting that, over time, becomes an inspirational and stable learning environment.
Horizons students benefit from:
-A 5:1 student-to-educator ratio with professional teaching staff
-Confidence-building activities like swimming, arts, and sports
-Weekly enrichment activities and field trips
-Long-lasting relationships with teachers and peers
-A challenging, encouraging, long-term learning community
Horizons St. Louis also values diversity and inclusion in its recruitment and hiring practices.
“Our staff is diverse, so that kids can see themselves in the adults who lead them,” said Bryant.
Bryant, nearly half of the program’s teachers and a third of its board of directors identify as African American or Black.
For more information, contact Horizons’ Program Director at ProgramDirector@horizonsstlouis.org.