Local students Experience UGA through theatre program

Ten years after she was a Chase Street Elementary School third grader, Maya Shrivastav found herself on stage as a UGA student performing for an audience of third-graders.

"It was a full-circle moment. It’s really great to see how everything I’ve done since third grade has led me here,” said Shrivastav, now a first-year UGA student majoring in international affairs, political science and ceramics.

Both Shrivastav and the students at her former school — now named Johnnie Lay Burks Elementary — came to UGA’s campus through Experience UGA field trips. The Experience UGA program is a longstanding partnership between UGA’s Office of Service-Learning and the Clarke County School District that provides annual field trips to campus. The trips are connected to the CCSD grade level standards and introduce pre-K through 12th grade students to a wide variety of opportunities at UGA.

This year’s third grade trip was funded by a grant from AthFest Educates, a nonprofit organization that funds arts education for students in Athens-Clarke County.

“It’s really cool that UGA has this program,” Shrivastav said. “There are so many opportunities for things to do on this campus. I hope they got from the trip that they can choose what they want to do for their future, and they don’t have to settle for just one thing.”

The Experience UGA program was launched in 2013 after a yearlong discussion between UGA and CCSD. Supported by university resources and private funding, the program introduces students from CCSD’s 21 schools to a variety of career paths on campus.

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Image: Maya Shrivastav, center, speaks to visiting elementary school students from her former school during an Experience UGA field trip at the UGA Fine Arts Building. (Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski)