January 29, 2024
The NASP® Student Contributor (SC) program, now in its third year, allows students, families, coaches, and friends of NASP®️ to experience the program through the eyes of student archers.
How did these archers get started with archery? Most try it in physical education classes at school taught by a certified NASP® instructor. Savannah Tovar, 2024 SC from Kentucky, recounts her first experience as, “When I started archery in 2018, I had no clue about the sport. No one in my family had ever shot archery before. I selected the purple bow because purple is my favorite color.” Now she gets to share her experiences with other new archers!
Every archer from an active NASP® school was invited to apply to be a contributor. A total of 19 NASP® archers were selected via application criteria submitted to NASP®. Contributors in the current group are dispersed across the United States.
This year’s team of student contributors range from 6th – 12th grade; include both public and homeschool students.
One of the favorite aspects of being a contributor is the ability to meet new people and make friends with other archers. Daniel Ebner, 2024 SC from Oregon, wrote, “The social part of archery is what I have always enjoyed the most. I have met a lot of great people and have always had someone nice to talk to at every tournament I’ve attended… there’s [always] been positive motivation coming from everyone around me.”
Contributors are given different topic ideas each month, they are also encouraged to submit their own topic. Submissions have included archery games, rules, experiences, tips, inspiration, and more.
For Emma Hickerson, 2024 SC from Tennessee, being a student contributor is just the start! She said, “My current plans for after high school and college are to become a history teacher and archery coach at a school in my county, so I can pass my love for this sport down to a young generation of archers, and help the sport grow even more in my state!”
Student articles will be featured on the Archer-to-Archer section of the NASP®️ website as well as shared on social media. These students are excited to share their experiences and we at NASP® are thrilled to share them with everyone! To see more about individual student contributors, please visit: https://www.naspschools.org/a2a/
Applications will open for our next round of student contributors on September 1st. For more information about the NASP® student contributor program, please contact Stephanie Evans, NASP® Program Manager, stephanie@naspschools.org.