The Shalom School After School for the Arts

OUR MISSION

While we welcome the opportunity to serve children in and around our community, we realize we are not the program for everyone. The Shalom School has specific goals that have been established based on a call to ministry. Our board of directors, faculty and staff recognize that what we have been called to offer does not meet the needs of all families and students. We do however know we meet the needs of many.

We are in partnership with the diverse community that includes African-Americans, Africans, Latinos, Caribbean, Asian-Americans and Caucasians. Our policy is one of turning no child away. Often, family financial resources as well as transportation needs prohibit the children from participating in other after school activities. In our public school system students who have not demonstrated some artistic "gift" or achieved a certain academic standing are denied access to arts and enrichment within the school curriculum.

While we are a faith-based organization, we do not exclude anyone from our program because of their beliefs. All are welcome at Shalom School. Our only requirement is that students exhibit a desire to learn in the area of art, dance, and/or music. We provide full and partial sponsorships, for those students who are unable to pay, from the funding we receive from outside sources.

We are proud yet humbled to note that through the Shalom School ministry, First United Methodist Church of Hyattsville as made an indelible impression upon over one thousand youth and their families in Prince George's County and around our region. We continue to pray for guidance and plan for growth, as we answer God's call to minister to all of His children.

The Faculty

Shalom School is staffed by professional artists, musicians, dancers, and theater persons. We also have professional educators, and persons trained to work with and supervise students through their academic pursuits. Our instructors and staff are with the Shalom School because they believe in the same mission and goal as that of the school. The faculty at Shalom School are professionals in their individual fields of expertise. Each has a unique and impressive resume but all are committed to the vision of "Bringing Peace to the Community through the Arts."

Many carry multiple degrees in their fields of discipline or beyond. Many are also certified teachers in academic fields and teach in public and private schools. Some have received grants from the local, state and national levels to perform, present and do workshops through the public school system and the Shalom School for the Arts. A number of our faculty are published, some are recording artists and concert artists, and others, working in our homework lab, have spent careers working with students in the public and private school forums. We also have staff members who are students majoring in education. Shalom School benefits from the collective energies of the staff and their enthusiasm for teaching.

The professional faculty is as diverse as the population of students and includes African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Afro- Carribean, and Caucasian men and women.They are here because: they live what they do, they recognize the value of the arts in their own lives, and they remember how important it was to have a mentor in their early artistic pursuits

Contact Sharon Starling at:
301-927-6133 ext. 20 or
sstarling@fumchy.org for more information

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