ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT INSTRUCTORS

Anjuli Kroon is a dance educator with over 20 years of teaching experience. She began dancing as a child at Twin Cities School of Dance in Bloomington, IL, where she studied ballet, tap, and jazz with Janet Heyslip-Streenz. During her teen years, she danced and choreographed with Orchesis Intercity Dance Company, studying ballet, jazz, modern, improvisation, and Graham technique with Laurie Merriman and Kim Neal Nofsinger. After high school Anjuli traveled and studied dance all over the country, in cities including Raleigh, Anchorage, Seattle, and Phoenix. She has studied dance at Meredith College, Anchorage Classical Ballet, Cornish College of the Arts, Ballet Etudes, and Arizona State University. Some of the teachers and choreographers she worked with along her journey include Carol Finely, Peter DiMuro, Mary Lou Edwards, Michelangelo Canale, Mary Fitzgerald, Karen Schupp, Carly Conder, Gregory Nuber, Elizabeth Johnson, Cynthia Roses-Thema, and others.  Anjuli graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance from Arizona State University. After college, she danced with H.Lab performance company, under the direction of Harper Piver, creating and performing collaborative modern dance works with integrated technology. Anjuli co-founded C3 Dance, a Phoenix based group providing dance education and experiences for youth, and partnering with Dance and the Child International. After moving to St. Louis, Anjuli danced and choreographed with Leverage Dance Theater, and has taught dance classes throughout the region. She has been on staff at DaySpring for 3 years, and part of the DaySpring community for much longer. Anjuli is excited to help students reach their dance and performance goals and to bring arts education and performance opportunities to the community.

Having begun her own theatrical training at Dayspring, April has a unique understanding of the program and how to help students achieve their full potential in a limited amount of time, all while passing on her love for theater to the next generation. With a BFA in Theater from Stephens College April has directed more than 30 musicals here at DaySpring. Some of her favorites include Finding Nemo (2024), Les Miserables (2021), Beauty and the Beast (2018), and Jane Eyre (2015).

I am a retired public school teacher. I have been teaching in various capacities for 32 years. Integrating STEAM into lessons has long been a classroom priority. During my last 15 years as an in person elementary teacher, I learned as much as I could about technology and helped students understand how to use technology to support their learning and improve their projects. For the past 4 years I have facilitated online learning environments teaching students how to code, build, and create using Lego and a variety of Makerspace materials. I joined Maryville in February 2023 and have had fun introducing students to the engineering design process, coding, robotics, movie making, Lego art, Lego math, Lego rescue challenges, STEAM projects and drones. I started with DaySpring in August 2024. I taught the Saturday Robotics at DaySpring for the first quarter and am moving to Enrichment Fridays to teach science. I am very excited to be part of this progressive learning environment.

My name is Kim Risch and this is my second year teaching at DaySpring.  Prior to this, I homeschooled my 4 kids for 20 years, some of them attended DaySpring as students, and one is now teaching here!  I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and loved it so much, I decided to continue to study it in college.  I have a BA in Spanish and spent 2 summers studying in Mexico.

This is my first year with DaySpring, but I'm not new to teaching.  I am a retired elementary teacher and Library Media Specialist with tons of experience incorporating STEAM into student activities.  During my last eight years as a librarian, I facilitated a STEAM Makerspace in 2 elementary libraries.  I currently work part-time for Maryville's Interactive STEAM Studio and lecture as a guest instructor for their teacher STEM certification program. I'm excited to join the DaySpring staff.