Knight Foundation graduates another class of leaders
By Mimi M.Maddock Mimi@TheColumbiaStar.com

Middle School students who participated in the Knight Foundation program sing at their graduation at Gibbes Middle School auditorium

The Knight Foundation funds an afternoon leadership program at EdVenture Children's Museum, as they do at the Columbia Museum of Art, the Riverbanks Zoo, and Trustus Theater. Local middle school students attend classes Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 4:15 and 5:30 pm for nine weeks. Graduation is held in the Gibbes Middle School auditorium.

At EdVenture, the students actively learn art, dance, and architecture/urban design by creating and developing a product for display at graduation. The art students design and paint their newly named country's national flag. A guided group of student dancers choreograph and rehearse a dance for the graduation recital. The achitecture students learn the economics of buildings and the design of cities, culminating in a streetscape plan and scale model for an ideal city of 50,000.

John Temple Ligon, business editor of The Columbia

Star, teaches the urban design and economics classes.

The afternoon leadership program teaches what is not available in the students' schools; therefore, the students' experiences are enhanced and enriched. The courses will run every semester as long as the Knight Foundation continues to have support.