High School students from the Shelby County Schools will now have the opportunity to continue to advance their educational horizon after the school year ends and their summer break begins.
The Tennessee Board of Regents will fund the University of Memphis to teach the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Academy over the summer.
The academy will start on May 31 through June 13, and it will last for two weeks.
“I think it’s wonderful. I’ve been working with the program since 2010,” Amanda Williams, STEM Academy Program Coordinator, said. “I think it is an awesome program, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
The university will receive $90,000 dollar grant.
“The grant will cover dorm, meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, lodging, T-shirt, all extracurricular activities, pay teachers to come and teach, and the students will get a stipend,” Williams said.
The students must be a part of Shelby County Schools system to be a part of the program.
“They go to class in the day time. So, they hit all of the points- science, technology, engineering, and math - during the day,” Williams said. “They have a little down time, and then every evening, we do an activity.”
The STEM academy tries to get a good mix of kids from different schools across the county.
“The whole point of the program is to raise standardized test scores,” Williams said. So they are trying to get the schools that need the help.”
Williams said the academy try to get 1-3 students from each school instead of getting six students out of one school.
Space is very limited to get in. The academy gets over 100 applications, and they only accept 50 students- 25 girls and 25 boys.
“The neatest thing ever is to see is the students. They hear camp, [like] math, and they’re like ‘I don’t want to do work over the summer. It’s going to be boring,’” Williams said. “They hate it, but once they get here by the end of the camp, they are literally crying, and begging their parents to stay longer.”
To get accepted, the requirements are as follows.
The student has to be a high school sophomore or junior. They have to finish the ninth grade, have to pass Algebra I, have to have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75, and a letter of recommendation from a student’s teacher or staff member.
The deadline for the application is April 3 by 4 p.m.
The application can by mailed to the university post-marked for the deadline, or they can bring the application to the university, physically.
