How do you make a boat out of pool noodles, cardboard, other scraps and some duct tape in 90 minutes?
That was one of the challenges awaiting 16-year-old Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science student Vincent Young and his nearly 70 other classmates one day at the Mississippi Governor’s School program this year.
“They actually fooled us,” Young said Thursday. “They tried to make it seem like it was a little seminar about fluids and how boats work. And, they were like, ‘Nope, we’re doing a boat challenge.’”
And even though none of his teammates wanted to be the engineer for the design, Young and his team still found a way to win.
“We made a raft and we actually ended up winning,” Young said. “… It all worked out in the end.”
MGS takes place two weeks in June every year at Mississippi University for Women and looks to grow and develop academically gifted high schoolers from across the state.
This year’s theme – “connections” – informed the approach in this year’s program, MGS Director Amber Cook said.
“Compared to last year, this year is a lot more focused on building relationships between the students, between the students and the professors and also with the content that they’re learning in their classes,” Cook said.
Students are taking part in 12 different classes offered over the time they spend on campus, like sourdough bread baking, videogame development and musical composition. Students learned about a variety of subjects they were interested in through courses developed by the staff at MUW, Cook said.
“We try to have a random mix of topics in the morning and the afternoon, so that students can take two different topics,” Cook said.
The program, which was founded by Gov. William Winter and MUW administration in 1981, has served thousands of students over the last 44 years, offering them three hours of college credit.
For 16-year-old Starkville High School student Anya Rai, the friends she made through the program helped her to not feel so homesick and to step out of her comfort zone during the two weeks at the school, she said.
“Now that I’m actually here with one day left of the program, it’s like, ‘How did time fly so fast?’” she said.
The program has also helped students like 17-year-old Caledonia High School student Bryan Chora to play the piano, which he had never done before his class at MGS, he said.
“I’ve been learning how to create music as well as playing the piano, which is something I never thought I’d do,” Chora said.
While the program does have structured courses, it also places an emphasis on teambuilding and getting students to interact through programs made with the residential staff as well, Cook said.
The memories made with classmates at the program are something that Young will take with him as he finishes at MGS, he said.
“It’s like we’ve been knowing each other for years, and we’ve known each other for two weeks,” Young said.
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