MAPS Media Institute set to begin 10th year of free classes for Bitterroot Valley students

It’s been a decade since Peter Rosten founded the MAPS Media Institute in Hamilton, and he marvels at how quickly that first class of students in the nonprofit afterschool program grew up.

"It’s been an extraordinary 10 years," he said. "It’s hard to believe. Ten years ago I met a bunch of kids in middle school who are now in their 20s. I look at them as grown-ups now, and they are dealing with adult issues. But once a MAPS kid, always a MAPS kid. We stay involved in their lives. But it’s crazy that ten years has gone by."

MAPS offers free courses in cyberskills, design, filmmaking, screenwriting, technical literacy, communication and music, among other things, to students from all over Ravalli County.

MAPS Media Institute http://www.mapsmediainstitute.org/

DAVID ERICKSON Ravalli Republic

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