Governor's Honors Academy at FSU through July 16

Fairmont State University will host the 2016 Governor’s Honors Academy on its main campus in Fairmont through July 16.

About 200 high school juniors will participate in the three-week residential program administered by the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, which also assists with in-kind support. Dr. J. Robert Baker, Director of the Honors Program at FSU, will serve as dean. The theme of the 2016 GHA is “Our Life in Common.”

“Since the 1960s, American society has become increasingly atomized and fragmented.  Despite the advent and popularity of social media, we tend to live solitary lives. The theme invites students, faculty and staff of the Academy to step out of this insularity and to reflect on the general good,” Baker said. “The theme raises questions about the relationship of the individual to the community. What are the reciprocal ties that bind us to our local and national communities? What can and should the individual contribute to the general well-being of his or her communities? What is the individual’s obligation to the public welfare? Especially in this year when we are electing a president, the theme asks, what is the individual’s duty toward the commonweal?”

Faculty and staff are carefully selected, giving students a specially designed curriculum. Students attend workshops, classes and a variety of stimulating extra-curricular activities in the areas of arts, humanities, mathematics, science and technology.

“Students attending GHA are just a short year away from entering college, and their experience on the campus of Fairmont State University changes their ideas about living on campus from dreams to reality. While living in a community of scholars, the 200 rising seniors from all over our state experience relationships with outstanding, excited faculty and, possibly for the first time, learn and study with students who are much like themselves,” said Sherry Keffer, Director of Governor’s Schools.

“We are so fortunate to have the support of our government leaders, allowing us to give students a truly transformative experience that revitalizes them intellectually and academically while raising their social consciousness and responsibility.”

2016 faculty and course topics are as follows:

• Toneta Akers-Toler, “Androids and Gynaecoids, CAN Both Be NEAT? Which One Are You?” and “NEAT Energy through Best: Discovering a Pathway to Your Optimum Potential”;
• Susan Cato-Chapman, “The Book of Faces: Theatre and Social Media” and “Orange is the New Activism”;
• Hugh Costello, “Exploring Engineering Design: How ‘Left-Brainers’ Use the Right” and “ ‘Why Do I Have to Study Math?’ An Intro to Technology and Mathematical Preparedness”;
• James Dillon, “Courts and Democracy” and “Should I Go to Law School?”;
• Rebecca Giorcelli, “There’s an App for That!” and “Smart Homes, Smart Cars and Computer Interfaces for Reading Minds”;
• Matthew Hokom, “The Examined Life: Philosophy, Virtue and Happiness” and “The Personal Essay and the Search for Meaning”;
• Dan Hollis, “What Are You Willing to Give” and “45 Words (225 Years Strong)”;
• Cody Hood, “The Language of Logic” and “When Will I Ever Use This?”;
• James Matthews, “When Other People Are Not Human: The History and Psychology of Genocide” and “Understand the Art of the Motion Picture”;
• Maria Miller, “On the Origin of Altruism” and “How Modern is Modernism”;
• Nathan Myers, “Creative Writing: Short Forms” and “The Conspiracy Theory”;
• Flynn Pollard, “A Glorious Struggle: History and Visions of Global Progress” and “Earth in the New Millennium: Your World and What It Means for You Tomorrow”;
• Anup Poudel, “Information Security: Learning to Encrypt and Decrypt Messages” and “Incompleteness and Inconsistencies: Paradoxes That Govern Our Lives”;
• John Shirley, “Power Plays: Dramatic Depictions of Crowds and Power” and “Plays of Protest, Voices of Dissent”;
• Doug Squire, “Math and the Common Life: Game Theory and Calculus” and “Mathematical Logic and Policy Decisions”;
• Brian Wright, “How to Write About Music” and “Get Up, Stand Up, Popular Music and Ethics.”

In 1984, Gov. John D. Rockefeller started West Virginia’s first Governor’s School, the West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy. GHA is a project born of a partnership among education, business leaders and state government. It is designed to stimulate and support excellence in education through a three-week residential summer program, which is provided without cost to 200 of the state’s top achieving rising high school seniors.

The mission of the academy is to operate an academically rich environment designed for high ability/high achieving students in an institution of higher education, challenging them to grow intellectually, creatively and socially in a culturally diverse atmosphere.

For more information, visit http://www.govschools.wv.gov/about_us/Pages/default.aspx.

 

Governor's Honors AcademyWest Virginia Department of Education and the ArtsDr. J. Robert Baker