11/2/2022
Education and Outreach
The center’s new Links to Literature program this year provided approximately 3,000 preschool-to-5th-grade students with complimentary copies of the books that inspired the productions they saw at The Smith Center.
10/28/2022
Education and Outreach
Setting his disbelief aside months later, the kindergarten teacher at Crestwood Elementary School calls receiving a Heart of Education Award an honor. “I am humbled, because I feel like there are many teachers out there who work just as hard as I do,” he says. “Year after year we work without any recognition of our dedication and hard work. To have that recognized was unexpected and gratifying.”
10/24/2022
Education and Outreach
Kathy Clemens exited her career as an educator on a high note. She retired after more than two decades in the Clark County School District (CCSD) with impeccable timing, having received a Heart of Education Award from The Smith Center just a few weeks prior.
10/5/2022
Education and Outreach
Just as singing and acting inspired her as a youth, La Pierre knows that Southern Nevada students will enjoy lifelong benefits from participating in the Disney Musicals in Schools program.
10/4/2022
Education and Outreach
Green Valley High School physics teacher Scott Panik has won numerous accolades for teaching, including being named 2005 Nevada Teacher of the Year and receiving the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics/Science Teaching in 2007. But winning a Heart of Education Award from The Smith Center in April was different.
9/23/2022
Education and Outreach
The Smith Center just announced the opening of nominations for its eighth-annual Heart of Education Awards, honoring outstanding CCSD educators who go above and beyond for their students. Anyone can nominate a CCSD teacher for a Heart of Education Award through January 13, 2023.
8/22/2022
Education and Outreach
For the first time in two years, school buses full of eager children will park at The Smith Center’s campus this fall. As a nonprofit, The Smith Center has presented student matinees in its theaters for roughly 70,000 Southern Nevada students each year since its opening, all at no cost to schools.
8/2/2022
Education and Outreach
Kalena Blake still remembers her sixth-grade trip to New York City, where she saw her first Broadway musical “The Lion King” at the Minskoff Theater. “It was captivating to see a show on Broadway,” remembers Blake, 18, a lifelong resident of Southern Nevada. “It was so enthralling, and made me think ‘this is what I want to do with the rest of my life.’” Little did she know how soon that would happen, with Blake performing on that same stage several years later.
7/28/2022
Education and Outreach
Dakota Renteria will never forget being named one of the eight finalists at the national Jimmy Awards® (formerly the National High School Musical Theatre Awards) at the Minskoff Theater on Broadway this June.
6/1/2022
Education and Outreach
High-energy singing and acting performances by talented musical theater students from 12 Nevada high schools highlighted the tenth-annual Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards, recognizing Nevada’s top musical theater students and the many talents involved with high school theater productions.