[vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]DECEMBER 2019 \\\\ GOVERNOR’S SCHOLARS PROGRAM<\/p>\n
The bulky, distorted skeleton lying in the corner of a classroom at Bellarmine University was created by some of Kentucky\u2019s sharpest students. One of its creators, Jaxson Ratliff, 17, now a senior at Johnson Central High School, explained that the clunky 6-foot-long papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 frame with no neck and extra-long legs taught an important lesson: its makers still have a lot to learn.<\/p>\n
Building a model solely from their collective skeletal knowledge proved an entertaining and mind-opening first assignment for students in the Healthcare Industry focus area at the five-week Governor\u2019s Scholars Program on the Bellarmine campus. The site is one of three concurrent programs over the summer reaching 1,000 students on the cusp of their final year of high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned more about bones after building that skeleton than I knew from reading or seeing pictures in textbooks at school,\u201d Ratliff said.<\/p>\n
After the introduction to anatomy and a discussion of body systems, students offered their own questions and concerns about health issues. Two weeks into the program, Jaxson and three others were designing a public-service announcement about opioid addiction and treatment as fellow scholars studied topics like mental health, vaping or donating blood.<\/p>\n
Over 37 summers, Governor\u2019s Scholars Program has provided fertile ground for designing Kentucky\u2019s most dynamic learning environments. It combines driven learners, skilled teachers, the fresh setting of a college campus, and classes free of test-prep pressures or the strict boundaries of single subject areas. The experience is designed to develop intellectual growth and show the strength of a community of learners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is education at its best,\u201d said Aris Cedeno, who joined the program in 1992 as a summer faculty member, became a campus director and has served as executive director since 2006. \u201cThis is an intellectual program, not an academic program \u2014 it\u2019s about exploration,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not providing an oasis \u2014 we are creating an irrigation system that touches the outside.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image style=”shadow” alignment=”center” image=”9562″][vc_column_text]JAXSON RATLIFF, now a senior at Johnson Central High School, talked with classmates at the Governor’s Scholars Program on the campus of Bellarmine University in Louisville. The group was creating a\u00a0public service announcement about opioid\u00a0addiction and treatment as part of their focus area class on healthcare.<\/i><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Cedeno said that time built in for reflection allows students to process new learning. Teachers and students also approach learning together, joining to \u201ctake intellectual risks\u201d that make new skills or perspectives a goal.<\/p>\n Students said that the program created an atmosphere that brings out a desire to learn.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are on topics that we find important,\u201d said Ratliff. \u201cThey see what makes us engaged, and that helps us to open up.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenna Shalash, 17, from Tates Creek High School in Lexington, said she noticed how often the teacher in her Political and Legal Studies focus area course asked students \u201cwhy?\u201d when they offered answers or expressed opinions. \u201cIt gets to the reasoning behind our thoughts,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has me go past where I usually would.\u201d<\/p>\n Ally Alred, 17, from Harlan County High, explained that the new mix of classmates might be part of the reason the teacher in her International Relations focus area course emphasized listening and appreciating different viewpoints. Whatever the reason, she said that the collaborative and positive space encouraged questions and growth. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to see different sides,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Establishing connections between students and also with teachers builds trust, said Stephen Buchholz, a science teacher at Waggener High School in Louisville who led the Healthcare Industry class that produced the skeleton. Trust, he added, is a prerequisite for venturing into new topics or working successfully with others.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job is to challenge them,\u201d said Buchholz, in his second summer on the GSP faculty. \u201cBuilding community is important for people to move beyond their academic comfort zone and to share personal experiences or perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n Kentucky\u2019s goals for GSP grew from concerns that Kentucky\u2019s education system lacked a high-profile way to promote intellectual development. Organizers saw the situation as a shortcoming that might be pushing some students toward higher education elsewhere. The program is funded largely by the state with private contributions. GSP has managed to maintain its free, five-week format since it started while growing to three college campuses each year. Its reputation for meaningful learning has been important to ensuring every county is involved each year.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n \u2014 Campus Director Jennifer Price<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]The program now includes a network of alumni who have become important contributors to future scholars. It has also met the goal of retaining top students \u2014 about 80 percent of GSP participants stay in-state for higher education. This year, the program marked a milestone: Andy Beshear, a 1995 scholar at the Northern Kentucky University campus, became the first scholar to be elected governor. (New attorney general Daniel Cameron was also a GSP scholar in the 2003 program on the NKU campus.)<\/p>\n Lisa Hicks, a lecturer at Stanford University and an instructor in the university\u2019s online high school program, taught the philosophy focus area at Bellarmine. She experienced how opportunities at GSP can open important doors. As a high school student from Clark County in 1994, she was assigned to the philosophy focus area. \u201cThat first exposure to philosophy really put me on a path,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cIt offered a chance to do things I didn\u2019t get to do in normal classroom life.\u201d<\/p>\n At Bellarmine, Hicks guided students through an overview of five branches of philosophy. Years of experience teaching at GSP has convinced her that a teacher\u2019s approaches to engage students can be just as important as the material covered. \u201cNot everything has to be content. You have to consider how they take up content,\u201d Hicks said. Her class included a philosophical scavenger hunt and student writing. It also offered an introduction to Plato and Aristotle plus discussion of evidence acquired through the senses versus abstract thought.<\/p>\n Without test scores or grades, students and teachers discover new reasons for learning. Hicks said that motivation grows from the natural curiosity that people have about the world around them and one another.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to take the energy they have and put it behind learning, risk taking and the formation of a community,\u201d added Jennifer Price, the campus director at Bellarmine who works as a psychology professor at Georgetown College and attended GSP in 1992. \u201cWe try to build something unique here. We learn from each other, find the intrinsic motivation, then watch that grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the focus area classes, faculty members and students are also assigned a separate \u201cgeneral studies\u201d topic. Rico Tyler, who teaches an astronomy focus area, led a general studies course about travel and culture titled \u201cPlanes, Trains and more.\u201d<\/p>\n On a July morning, students used a long hallway to measure average distance per step. Using math, the class determined that students could walk almost 2.5 miles per hour. At that rate, each student considered the time it would take to travel from their home to Louisville for GSP, had they been invited to attend in the 1800s, when walking ruled.<\/p>\n In the span of an hour, the conversation ranged from what convinced people to make an extended trip, how town fountains and basic codes of charity and hospitality grew from the need to host travelers, and ways that cultures, economies and technology shaped movement to new places. The day\u2019s session covered math, history, science, language, literature and even a short tribute to casseroles as a fixture of generosity.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n \u2014 Teacher Rico Tyler<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Tyler, who has been on the Governor\u2019s Scholars faculty for 36 years \u2014 from his second year as a high school teacher through his recent retirement from the education program at Western Kentucky University \u2014 said that GSP produces exemplary teaching and learning. Teachers and students alike, he said, move past habits of worksheet-driven instruction judged by multiple-choice exams.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents become good at ways to condense and bottle answers, but when you take away the traditional carrots and sticks, you start to see that answering is not the same thing as understanding. At the same time, talking is not the same thing as teaching,\u201d Tyler said. \u201cThis environment helps students to understand and defend what they know; to explain and make sense by weighing and judging evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n In his experience in teacher education, Tyler said that GSP offers a fresh view of how to connect with students and provide richer learning experiences. Schools and students need more opportunities to expand their knowledge beyond single subject areas and into real-life experiences and problem solving, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents have to understand the forces at work. The world looks the way it does for reasons you can understand. Culture has developed for reasons that make sense,\u201d Tyler said. \u201cAll subject areas blend into one. If I don\u2019t cross subject boundaries, I\u2019m not teaching the whole story.<\/p>\n \u201cThe difference between GSP and regular school, with the more discussion-based style of learning, is that the topics that are important to us are topics we are able to put our focus on,\u201d noted Jaxson Ratliff of Johnson County. \u201cThat will help students stay more engaged and help us dig deeper into what we\u2019re learning instead of just reading out of a textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n Tyler agreed that depth and engagement are important lessons to take from the experience that GSP creates: \u201cThe biggest thing to come out of the past 37 years is helping a generation of Kentuckians gain a clearer picture of how this state and its people operate \u2014 a better sense of what they think, why things make sense, what\u2019s behind issues, and a deeper understanding of themselves and others.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image style=”shadow” alignment=”center” image=”9565″][vc_column_text]STUDENTS in the Healthcare\u00a0Industry focus area at the Governor’s Scholars session on the Bellarmine University campus in Louisville work together to find information about various public health topics. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n AT THE TOP: Teacher Rico Tyler of Bowling Green leads his general studies class about travel and culture at\u00a0the 2019 GSP session. Last summer was Tyler’s 36th teaching with the summer program.<\/i><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner background_color=”#fdfaa6″ css=”.vc_custom_1571600588466{padding-top: 5% !important;padding-right: 5% !important;padding-bottom: 5% !important;padding-left: 5% !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n ISSUES IN INTELLECTUAL GROWTH<\/strong><\/p>\n Kentucky’s Governor’s Scholars Program sometimes describes its approach as “enrichment” for top students; however, its design is rooted in the fundamentals of a liberal arts education created to prepare citizens to engage in a free society dating to ancient Greeks and Romans. The earliest American colleges emphasized the need to develop intellectual abilities, which an influential 1928 Yale report described as “the discipline and the furniture of the mind.”<\/p>\n Higher education was built around practicing ways of understanding events and analyzing information as well as considering evidence, alternatives and consequences. Today, economic trends make problem solving, creative \u00a0and big-picture thinking essential skills. Schools striving to develop “lifelong learners” should emphasize experiences that build intellectual capacity. Some questions that might spark helpful local action:<\/p>\n \\\\<\/strong>\u00a0How much do schools and districts know about the learning skills and experiences that colleges are increasingly seeking to develop?<\/p>\n \\\\ How can teaching and learning help more students experience intellectual challenge and growth?<\/p>\n \\\\<\/strong>\u00a0Are schools involved with local economic development or business leaders or civic leaders to understand the skills that will help students become successful adults and active citizens?<\/p>\n \\\\ Kentucky colleges are part of the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ LEAP campaign to expose students to intellectual skills. The group’s report<\/a> describes the importance of exposing all students to “big questions” about culture, economy, human dignity and more. Other themes are connecting knowledge with choices and action and teaching problem solving and communication. “The goal \u2014 starting in school and continuing through college \u2014 should be to provide the most empowering forms of learning for all college students, not just some of them,” the report stated.<\/p>\n \\\\<\/strong>\u00a0The 2020 Governor’s Scholars Program<\/a> application process is well underway. High schools across the state will forward applications and selections to the state organization in January, with students receiving official notification of their status in April. After students confirm their intentions and state preferences for areas of study, they are notified in May about what campus they will attend and \u00a0focus area assignments. Sessions will be held in June and July at Bellarmine University, Centre College and Morehead State.<\/p>\n \\\\<\/strong>\u00a0Two sister programs also bring together high school students from across the state. The Governor’s School for the Arts<\/a> is a summer residency program for students about to start their sophomore or junior years. Over 200 students focus on architecture, creative writing, dance, drama, instrumental music, musical theatre, new media, visual art, and vocal music. \u00a0The Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs<\/a> is a three-week program for students about to start their sophomore or junior years. Students work in teams to create products or services, use technology, learn enterprise skills and pitch their work to a panel of judges on Demo Day.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner background_color=”#fafbb9″ css=”.vc_custom_1571600560552{padding-top: 5% !important;padding-right: 5% !important;padding-bottom: 5% !important;padding-left: 5% !important;}”][vc_column_text]Each month, the BRIGHT SPOTS blog showcases impressive learning in Kentucky schools.<\/em><\/p>\n COMING SOON<\/b>\u00a0\\\\ ENROLLMENT: 1,024 on three campuses. Scholars from 118 counties completed the program. Participants from all 120 counties were accepted.<\/p>\n DATA NOTES \\\\<\/strong>\u00a0In a survey conducted at the 2018 programs, 93 percent of students responding agreed or strongly agreed that the program provided meaningful classroom experiences. Meanwhile, 92 percent agreed that the program opened their mind to cultures within Kentucky and in the wider world. More than 95 percent responded that they were challenged to think in new ways and do new things in and out of the classroom.<\/p>\n \\\\<\/strong>\u00a0Among the founders of the program, created with the backing of Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., was the late Robert F. Sexton. He was the founding executive director of the Prichard Committee and served as an initial coordinator during the development and launch of the Governor’s Scholars Program in 1983.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DECEMBER 2019 \\\\ GOVERNOR\u2019S SCHOLARS PROGRAM<\/p>\n The bulky, distorted skeleton lying in the corner of a classroom at Bellarmine University was created by some of Kentucky\u2019s sharpest students. One of its creators, Jaxson Ratliff, 17, now a senior at Johnson Central High School, explained that the clunky 6-foot-long papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 frame with no neck and extra-long legs taught an important lesson: its makers still have a lot to learn.<\/p>\n Building a model solely from their collective skeletal knowledge proved an entertaining and mind-opening first assignment for students in the Healthcare Industry focus area at the five-week Governor\u2019s Scholars Program on the Bellarmine campus. The site is one of three concurrent programs over the summer reaching 1,000 students on the cusp of their final year of high school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bright-spots"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5893,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922\/revisions\/5893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
We want to take the energy they have and put it behind learning, risk taking and the formation of a community.<\/i><\/h2>\n
\n
When you take away the traditional carrots and sticks, you start to see that answering is not the same thing as understanding.<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
\nA RENEWED APPROACH TO PROFICIENCY FOR ALL<\/strong>\u00a0at the Robertson County Schools.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner background_color=”#f9f9ea” css=”.vc_custom_1571600575469{padding-top: 5% !important;padding-right: 5% !important;padding-bottom: 5% !important;padding-left: 5% !important;}”][vc_column_text]ABOUT THE KENTUCKY GOVERNOR’S SCHOLARS PROGRAM\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\\\\<\/p>\n
\n\\\\<\/strong>\u00a0Throughout its history, the percentage of GSP students enrolling in Kentucky colleges or universities has increased, topping 80 percent in 9 of the 12 years after it first reached that level with participants in the 2005 program. A 2018 report noted that of the nearly 25,000 alumni the program with valid contact information, nearly 82 percent have a permanent address in Kentucky.<\/p>\n