According to the National Endowments for the Arts (NEA), high school students with high arts involvement were 15% more likely to enroll in a more moderate to highly selective 4-year college program.

NEA also indicates that 30% of college students with high arts involvement end up choosing majors that lead to careers in accounting, social sciences, nursing or education. In addition, 41% of young adults who were highly involved in arts during primary school voted in 2004, only 31% of young adults who were not involved in the arts voted.

Art of all kinds is a wonderful thing, from choreography or singing to sculpting and painting. Expressing one’s self will light up the ever-changing and growing world. Each person has an offering to society from their own imagination or creativity.

Nearly every American school has a theater program, an art program, a choir program, and/or a music department. Some students participate, and some shine, and undoubtedly some sit idle and let their chance go by.

An Air Academy High School senior, Naheim Colon-Sanders, had noticed an abundance of talent at the school. Colon-Sanders went about creating a club unlike one seen before at AAHS. Titled the Motivation Arts Club, Naheim aims high with its purpose.

“I started seeing kids who were really talented but they were really scared to show themselves. When we had Montage, kids’ acts would get cut and it was discouraging to them. It made them want to stop. With this club [Motivation Arts Club], we’re here to help kids see they still have a talent or help them grow artistically. It’s not just singing or dancing, its anything artistic,” said senior Colon-Sanders.

Counselor at AAHS, Sean Brotherton, was who Colon-Sanders came to initially about the startup of the Motivation Arts Club. In September, fresh off the Montage Production, Naheim and a handful of other students performed for the school. This sparked an idea in Colon-Sanders

“Naheim came to me, interested in starting a club and he’s really into performing arts, dancing, theatre, different things like that. He said, ‘Hey there’s a lot of talented people in this school and we don’t see a lot of them showing what they can do,'” said AAHS Counselor Sean Brotherton.

Head of the Motivation Arts Club, Colon-Sanders is a performing singer and participant in the thespian arts. He wants to give other kids the confidence they should have in themselves and their art of choice. The club desires to incubate creativity and better its members at performing.

“[Colon-Sanders] wanted to start a club where people can show their talent, whether its visual arts, drawing, painting, acting or singing. It’s intended to be a place where people can shine, so-to-speak,” said Brotherton.

“This club can help you gain more confidence in yourself or be ready for an audition or performance or just be yourself,” said Colon-Sanders. 

The Motivation Arts Club has a vast and wide area for variety and creativity to run wild. The club wants to perform at school functions and any other available place, spreading the positivity and fun of art and creativity everywhere they go. No performances have been seen of the club yet, as it is still incredibly new. Flyers posted around the school have caught the attention of many, as the first meeting of the club yielded around 15 people.

Colon-Sanders plans another meeting of the club to gain members and publicity. Inducting a large number of members and momentum is the short term goal of Colon-Sanders. All that in mind, no dates have been posted; however, there will be another meeting in the future.