John Rogers

 

John Rogers began working as the Orchestra Teacher at Brookland-Cayce High School in Cayce, S.C. in 2014 while working to earn his certification in Music Education with the PACE Program. He was also given the opportunity to start the guitar program at BCHS when he started working there.

In 2016, he was offered the opportunity to restart the Orchestra Program at Cyril B. Busbee Creative Arts Academy, and he says he is grateful for the support of a grant through the Classics For Kids Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. "The money to procure the first set of stringed instruments we ever had came as a direct result of the grant application I submitted," he says. The program started with 12 sixth grade students. Now, Busbee serves Orchestra students in sixth through eighth grade. Since restarting the program, John's students have earned Superior ratings at Solo & Ensemble, positions in the SCMEA All-Region Orchestra, and have consistently earned “Excellent” ratings over the past five years at the SCMEA Concert Performance Assessment event. In 2020, John was offered a full-time staff position at BCAA and helped found the school's guitar program as part of the opportunity.

John says, "I am grateful for the support of my administration at Busbee. They have allowed me to pilot a recruitment program at my school that allowed us to increase the enrollment of the Orchestral Strings Program at BCAA by 70% between the 23-24 and 24-25 academic years. 
God is good."