Our story
Excellence After-School Emporium is an educational corporation that offers after-school learning opportunities and instruction services to private schools. EASE is a single, multi-disciplinary vendor that secures instructors, implements a normative curriculum in a variety of disciplines, and manages the entire operation.
The team at Excellence After-School Emporium believes it is crucial for private school administrators to secure a single, all-in-one provider of after school activities, extracurricular, and complementary curricular instruction.
Schools will benefit greatly from engaging our new model, which:
- Provides a variety of after school activities and special subjects
- Maintains the highest level of activity and subject quality
- Works with schools to implement a curriculum map for these extra activities
- Offers a single point of contact for all administrative and HR tasks, and, at the school’s request, the billing aspects of the program
Our Staff
Dairel Benemelis
Music Educator, EASE Program Director and CEO
A firm believer in the capacity of children to learn and absorb from an early age every bit of information made available to them, Dairel Benemelis launched a path for combining learning and fun through the practice of after-school education. He was trained and educated in Trumpet Performance/Ensemble and Brass Instruments, as well as in Orchestra Conducting in his native Cuba. He has over 25 years of experience teaching piano, trumpet as well as music and the basics of stage performing to school children, first at the International School in Caracas, Venezuela (1997-2001), then for 14 years at the International College of Spain (2001-2015). He developed a learning module for pre-school and early elementary students, ages 3 to 8, which he named Showtime. Showtime includes young children who are usually excluded from this type of training, thus becoming an advocate for youngsters to actively perform, as opposed to leaving them be a passive audience. Showtime enhances learning through a combination of music, drama and body movement. In Madrid, he launched Art Smart, a program designed for teaching English to students through Music, Drama and Arts and Crafts. Also, he organized and managed a team of private tutors of English and other academic subjects as well as instrument classes at students’ homes. Mr. Benemelis also trained musical-theater teachers in his Art Smart after-school philosophy, for teachers to take this methodology into the schools when engaged as after-school instructors. Art Smart was the inspiration for establishing Center Stage Academy –now Excellence After-School Emporium, EASE- in Florida in 2016 at Key Point Christian Academy, Miami.
Rebecca Guardia
Management and Operations, EASE Assistant Executive Director
A native Floridian, EASE’s Assistant Executive Director (AED) holds a Bachelor’s degree and has two, school-aged children. This gives her special insight into the needs of kids, as well as the expectations of parents. She has first-hand knowledge of the joy for learning that youngsters experience when they are having fun. Ms. Guardia is a key component of the EASE infrastructure and of its efficient operations. Our AED brings to EASE years of administrative experience and has been the company’s administrator since 2021, doing pertinent updates regarding schools and instructors; strategizing for upcoming events like class sneak-peeks for parents, open lessons, demo classes and summer camps. Mrs. Guardia coordinates schedule changes for instructors and maintains the company’s database. She is thrilled to be part of an endeavor that has a positive impact on the enrichment of children in our community.
Advisors
Ileana Fuentes
Content and Communications Consultant
Throughout her 45-year career in the cultural field and in education, Ms. Fuentes, a published author and translator, has served as advisor to a variety of projects, both in the arts and the humanities. She holds the title of Founding Director of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami, from which she retired in 2019. She was a member of the advisory council of the New York-based non-profit organizations Association of Hispanic Arts, INTAR Latin American Gallery and the Latin American Theater Ensemble. Fuentes was a founding member of the Minority Arts Commission of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She has served as consultant to the Virginia-based International Relief & Development (IRD); the Jamaica-based Ceiba Institute for Afro-Cuban Studies, and the Madrid-based Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana.
Partners
FLORIDA DANCE
Florida Dance, Inc. is a partner of Excellence After-School Emporium (EASE) and provides dance instructors as needed to out after-school program. Established in 2010, Florida Dance is under the direction of Mrs. Isora Delmas who studied and danced with the Ballet Concerto Company and who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Florida International University. Florida Dance is guided by the same philosophy as EASE, applied to the field of dance: to nurture a love for dance in students while teaching them discipline; improving flexibility; fostering movement creativity; enhancing self-esteem; increasing strength; developing motor skills and coordination, and expanding music appreciation. The teachers that Florida Dance makes available to EASE are also highly qualified and most of them hold a Bachelors degree in Dance.
Our Students
For private schools PreK-12, we let students be the protagonists of the learning experience.
Our program allows children to unleash their potential, natural curiosity and interest in learning.
Testimonials
at Key Point Christian Academy