By: Hayden Taylor, EAST Student Contributor

EAST facilitators are so much more than traditional educators. They are individuals who make sure EAST students have an open door to make a difference within their community. Former EAST facilitator, Mr. Robbie Cox, reflected on how his EAST story began when he “visited six different EAST programs across the state.” 

He said after seeing the wonderful changes the programs were making, he decided “he wanted to make the plunge,” to become an EAST Facilitator. Cox further spoke on his first year as a facilitator, saying, “The first year generates a lot of excitement, as well as many challenges for both the facilitator as well as the student.  The main challenge is overcoming the concept of the traditional classroom and transitioning from a teacher to a facilitator.  Having taught in a regular classroom for 19 years I had to overcome the huge hurdle of it being student-led instead of teacher-led. I found this was very difficult for the students as well.”

 However, Cox jumped over this challenge successfully and at his second EAST Conference, his program,  EAST at Batesville Junior High School, had the privilege of accepting the EAST Founder’s Award. He expressed how at this point his “students became empowered and responsible for their own learning.  They became almost limitless as to what they could accomplish.” After years of success in EAST, Cox said many of his students returned to him expressing how “solving real world problems wasn’t easy, [yet] EAST generated a lot of confidence in the students, preparing them for their future.” 

In fact, many said  “it gave them the confidence to communicate with others whether it be one on one or public speaking.” Cox further shared on how he saw not only his students change, but how he changed as an educator, expressing, “EAST changed my entire mindset on what students can accomplish when given the opportunity to let them actually apply themselves.” He expressed how important the expansion of EAST became for each student as it gave them the abilities “to reach out of the walls of their own program and talk to students from around the state.” 

 When asked for words of advice for new facilitators, Cox expressed, “don't be afraid to empower students to be responsible for their own learning.  Let them know that failure is an option as long as it is not the end of a project.” He also spoke on advice for experienced facilitators to “work on always developing leaders in your EAST program.  Always have good leaders who understand the EAST concept coming up as the older leaders are leaving the program.” 

Cox's story truly embodies the success of an EAST Facilitator. He summed up the importance of EAST allowing students opportunities to be leaders by expressing, “The students are the ones who have the power to be difference makers. EAST gives them the ability to do that.”