EAST Initiative

After just over a year of making a massive impact at EAST HQ and with our students, Keeley is moving up by becoming our new Training and Events Coordinator! She's already gone above and beyond at EAST, and we can't wait to see what she does next in her new role. Please join us in congratulating Keeley! 🥳💙

Congratulations to Kathryn and Grayson for utilizing what they learned in EAST Student Training to complete such a great hometown project! 🥳

EAST students Kathryn Hartshorn and Grayson Herring completed their project working on preserving the story of Hamburg, Arkansas! They researched local historic landmarks with the help of their community partner, Lezlie Foote, uncovering community history and shining a light on the places that make our town special! Kathryn and Grayson went to a two day EAST student training to learn more about the ArcGIS software that they were using for this project. Posted below is a link to their ArcGIS StoryMap with a personalized embedded map. Great job students!

Click on the link to see their work!
https://arcg.is/1aCPfu1

heard the EAST at John Tyson Elementary School Tigers roar during their recent Board meeting! JTE EAST students shared their experience giving veterans a voice through the "Tiger Talk" podcast with the state's leaders in education. 🐯💙

Join us for the season finale of Empowered by EAST recorded from the ! Listen to the podcast on your preferred platform by visiting https://linktr.ee/eastinitiative.

We're proud to announce the 2026-27 EAST Student Contributors! These students will work with EAST Communications next years to create original designs and share stories from programs across the state through our social media platforms, on EASTinitiative.org and our EAST Perspectives newsletter.

Sign up for the newsletter today at https://eastlink.me/EASTPerspectives!

We wrapped up Student Training for the school year this week with drones, ArcGIS, and advanced photography techniques! Thank you , and all of our trainers for teaching thousands of EAST students core skills in areas across STEM.

visited to share how they implement drone technology into their work, along with promoting railway safety measures. What a great community partner with over 150 years of experience in emerging technologies!

EAST continues to grow! Please join us in welcoming Yaya Leonard to the EAST staff, as she's excited to work hand in hand with our Growth team to help expand EAST to more schools across Arkansas and beyond!