A recent grant from the Horizon Foundation will support Loyola University Maryland’s efforts to continue and grow Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids, a program blending speech-language therapy with musical theater.
The $17,675 grant from the Columbia, Md.-based non-profit supports a year-old partnership between the Loyola Clinical Centers and the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts (CCTA). The Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids program allows children with autism, Asperger’s, Down syndrome, and other developmental disabilities to work with Loyola speech-language pathology master’s students to advance their therapy goals while rehearsing for a musical theater performance under the guidance of CCTA’s professional staff.
Launched in 2009, Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids has premiered performances featuring excerpts from High School Musical and The Wizard of Oz. The latter took place at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, which shares a founder and director with CCTA.
The Horizon Foundation grant joins a recent award from the Columbia Foundation supporting Loyola and CCTA’s plans to pilot the Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids program in Howard County public schools.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Media Relations Manager Nick Alexopulos at nalexopulos@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.