Horizons Savannah helps students build confidence both in school and in the pool
Written by KA’DIA DHATNUBIA
Photography by PETER COLIN MURRAY
AT 10 A.M. ON A SWELTERING JUNE MORNING, the anticipation is palpable around Savannah Christian Preparatory School’s outdoor pool. A group of first-graders scrambles to fasten their goggles, swim caps and life vests. Within minutes, they are all splashing in the water and taking turns practicing strokes in the shallow end.
It’s a familiar scene, and perhaps a nostalgic memory, for anyone who participated in swim lessons as a kid. Yet, this isn’t a typical swim lesson.
Since launching in 2002, Horizons Savannah — one of 70 program sites in the nationwide Horizons network — has been on a mission to partner with youth, their families and the community to enrich students’ lives with the joy of learning, the skills for success and the inspiration to realize their dreams. With a tuition-free, six-week academic and enrichment summer program for K-12 students designed to close the opportunity gap for children and help them achieve their goals in school and life, much of Horizons’s curriculum happens in the classrooms of local host schools, including Savannah Country Day School and Bethesda Academy along with Savannah Christian.
The real draw for many participants, however, is the pool time.
“We do a lot of things at Horizons to build students’ self-confidence, their ability to advocate for themselves, to seek out opportunities to become successful in whatever that means to them,” says Christy Edwards, who has served as the executive director of Horizons since 2011. “Swimming is the place where it all comes together because, for a lot of our students, swimming is not something they would necessarily do without being part of our program.”
Making a Splash
According to USA Swimming, 79% of children in households with [an annual] income less than $50,000 have little to no swimming ability. Research also shows 64% of African American, 45% of Hispanic/Latino and 40% of Caucasian children have little to no swimming ability.
Horizons Savannah seeks to change that one class at a time. Thanks to volunteer support, Georgia Department of Education’s COVID-19 relief funding and generous donations from corporate and individual sponsors, the program is free to students who meet Horizons’ application and income eligibility requirements — meaning those who likely didn’t have access to a pool before are now able to try something new.
Today, the Savannah program has grown to serve around 300 students, with over 85% of students returning each year.
The benefits that result spread out like a cannonball splash. First and foremost, swimming is a lifelong skill that keeps people safe, especially in a coastal community.
“I hear this all the time: ‘My dad just threw me in the deep end,’” Edwards says of the fear that can accompany beginners. Because of this common experience, Horizons staff take a slow and steady approach — meeting youth where they’re at, going at their own pace and getting in the water with them. “If you want to take the entire summer to get into the water, that’s fine,” she explains. “It builds this amount of trust with their teacher that really would not exist in a normal classroom.”
In turn, the student confidence formed in the water can go a long way when back in the classroom — especially when it comes to closing the gap of summer learning loss that can occur between students with less access to resources than other students.
“We do a lot of things at Horizons to build students’ self-confidence, their ability to advocate for themselves, to seek out opportunities to become successful in whatever that means to them. Swimming is the place where it all comes together because, for a lot of our students, swimming is not something they would necessarily do without being part of our program.”
Christy Edwards, executive director of Horizons
According to Horizons Savannah’s website, the average student who does not experience enriching summer activities can lose up to two months in academic skills — and without access to resources to catch up, students may never regain these lost skills, setting them further behind each year. Last year, only 51% of SCCPSS graduates met the criteria for being college- or career-ready, with only 26% of graduating students entering the technical or university system of Georgia without needed remediation.
There’s even a swim team, The Horizons Hurricanes, giving participants the opportunity to compete as a part of the Savannah Coastal Swim League, along with neighborhood teams from Mayfair, Isle of Hope, Savannah Golf Club, The Landings, Savannah Quarters, Savannah Yacht Club and Wilmington Park. Many past members graduate from the program and return as coaches, and an alumni chair on the Board of Directors facilitates a network of strong achieving students beyond Savannah.
The Home Team
Since enrolling her son with Horizons at the age of 10, Kayla Sanders says she has seen him grow and expand the possibilities of where his life can go. He is continuing to pursue swimming and earned a scholarship to swim with the Low Country Aquatic Club (LCAC), a year-round competitive team, during his eighth-grade year.
“He got to travel to different cities and swim against so many great kids,” Sanders says of her son’s experience with LCAC. “He did not know there’s a historical Black college [with a swim team], so that just opened his eyes to more.” She adds that he even has plans to become a certified lifeguard to work for Horizons.
An avid swimmer herself, Sanders passionately advocates for all children to learn the skill. She compares sending her son to Horizons to sending him to a family member, because she knows he will be taken care of. “I feel safe,” she says.
Fellow Horizons mother JoAnna Huckabee adds that she suspects what her kids look forward to even more than the pool is seeing the friends they made at Horizons.
It’s this tight-knit community that Edwards names as her proudest accomplishment in 13 years as the executive director. “I have really had the privilege to watch so many students grow up in our program,” she says. “They’ve taken everything we’ve had to offer and gone on to do incredible things. And, I mean, that’s all you can ask for in this kind of job.”
Community support is a lifeline for not only most students but for the Horizons organization as a whole. With the Georgia Department of Education’s COVID relief funding reaching its end, Horizons Savannah is actively seeking other funding avenues to both stabilize the program and maintain the pools at their host schools. As they approach what she terms the “fiscal cliff,” Edwards says, “We’ve tried to be really smart about how we use the funding, but we do know that’s a hole in our budget in the future.”
Beyond stability, Edwards’s big dream is to invest in a place where The Horizons Hurricanes could host home meets. “I feel like our students deserve that,” she says. “They deserve to have a facility that is just as well appointed as any of these other teams.”
