ECOSKITS

Jaya Castro discovered her love for theatre at the age of 10, when she performed in her first-ever musical  - Seussical Kids. Since then, she has acted in numerous other musicals, attended Interlochen Arts Academy for musical theatre training, competed at Thespian Districts and is currently a student in Miami Palmetto Senior High's Comp musical theatre program. 

Hoping to ignite a passion for performing in others she began working with a small group of young kids at her former elementary school, Pinecrest Elementary. She combined this desire with her love for environmental science, as she felt that kids needed to understand more about the current detriments to the Earth than what was being taught in in-school curricula; as Jaya learned more and more about environmental science in high school, she realized that the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" phrase that almost encompassed at least half of environmental education in child education was simply not enough.

As a result, Jaya began the "EcoSkits" club at Pinecrest Elementary, where she works with a group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Each week of club she introduces a new environmental issue, from ocean acidification to urbanization's effect on the Earth.  A student is then chosen to create their own skit or theatre-based game based on the issue of the week, in order to encourage students' creativity and ignite in their hearts the love for theatre that lives in hers.